Blinded By Science
by Bill K
Summary: Graduation! Proposals of Marriage! Hopes and dreams for the future are all held hostage by the schemes of a villain reaching back through time to the present in order to corrupt the future.
1. A Dream Come True

BLINDED BY SCIENCE Chapter 1: "A Dream Come True"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic  
  
By Bill K.  
  
Sailor Moon and all related characters are (c)2004 by Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha and Toei Animation and are used without permission, but with respect. Story is (c)2004 by Bill K.  
  
As always, for those only familiar with the English dub:  
  
UsagiSerena

AmiAmy

ReiRaye

MakotoLita

MinakoMina

HarukaAmara

MichiruMichelle

SetsunaTrista

MamoruDarien

Chibi-UsaRini

Naru-Molly  
  
Finally, Haruka and Michiru are NOT cousins.  
--------------------------------------------------  
  
2996 - - Hotaru Tomoe sat in the virtual library of the palace of Crystal Tokyo. She was doing a presentation for her physics class on the transmission of sound waves through air, water,  
solid rock and vacuum. As she sat and watched a virtual reality presentation of the transmission of sound waves through a tank of water, her mind began to wander back to the previous demonstration. It occurred in the vacuum of outer space.  
  
"Space," she thought to herself. "I wonder what it's like. Mama and Papa won't talk about their days in space. It must be a bad place."  
  
The still-slight young fifteen-year-old shifted in her seat as the virtual demonstration continued around her.  
  
"Cold and barren - - and so vast. I don't see how humans could live out there. I wouldn't. Send someone else. Send a robot or something."  
  
The thought sparked a series of connections in her brain.  
  
"Robots," she thought. "That's right. This is the thirtieth century. There's all sorts of automated and computerized marvels in this time. Yet there are only the most basic of robots. And there's no automated human replicas - - what were they called, androids?"  
  
Her curiosity piqued, Hotaru halted the virtual display.  
  
"Computer? Encyclopedia entry for android - - display."  
  
"Cannot comply," said the computer's synthesized voice. "That subject is locked."  
  
"By who?"  
  
"By order of King Endymion and Queen Serenity."  
  
Hotaru looked very puzzled. "Why?"  
  
"No reason is currently logged."  
  
Walking down the corridor to her quarters, Hotaru puzzled over the locked entry. Why did the king and queen do it? Why was such a simple concept as an android locked away and forbidden to the minds of the thirtieth century? How long had it been like that? Passing the quarters of her fellow senshi, Hotaru stopped. Galvanized by a need to know, she buzzed on the door.  
  
"Hi, Hotaru," Cere-Cere smiled. She was sitting in a chair watching three-dimensional pictures of the latest fashions. Her homework computer was next to the chair, unused.  
  
"Hello, Miss Hotaru-ma'am!" squealed Palla-Palla, off in a corner watching her favorite program, Yumi-chan's Toyshop. "Come look! Mouse-kun is about to play a trick on Miss Yumi-chan!" "Mouse-kun" was an anthropomorphic mouse on the show.  
  
"Uh, maybe later," Hotaru deferred. "Cere-Cere, can I ask you something?" The redhead nodded. "Would you know why the entry on androids is locked in the virtual encyclopedia?"  
  
Cere-Cere looked at her blankly. "What's an android?" Just then Jun-Jun wandered in.  
  
"You don't know what an android is?" Hotaru asked. Cere-Cere just looked at her blankly, as did Jun-Jun. "It's an artificial human, made of computer circuits and a metal or plastic skeleton, but it looks and acts human."  
  
Suddenly Jun-Jun got a very anxious look on her face. "Um, Hotaru, maybe you shouldn't talk about things like that."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Well, I was always taught that things like that - - aren't right."  
  
Hotaru wanted to press the issue, but the look Jun-Jun and Cere-Cere gave her told her not to do it. Exiting, the girl changed course and headed for the Royal Quarters, specifically the bedroom of the Princess.  
  
"I don't know," Usa said. The teen was sprawled on her bed while Hotaru sat on the chair at her desk. "They're sort of mechanical men, right? It's a real touchy subject with my parents,  
Mom especially."  
  
"Do you know why?"  
  
"No. And whenever I'd ask, Mom would try to give me a lot of double talk and get nervous and give me that embarrassed laugh she has. Then Dad would always butt in and tell me it was something I didn't need to know. Then I'd object and he'd get all authoritarian and we'd get into an argument and Mom would get upset." Usa blew her bangs out of her eyes. "After awhile,  
it just isn't worth it."  
  
"You suppose something happened in their past?" Hotaru asked.  
  
"Maybe. I've looked. There are missing entries in their biographies, from the twentieth,  
twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. It could be just lost records. Not everything survived from those eras." Usa grew serious. "But it could be 'edited' history, too. I hate to say it, but Dad is capable of making any record he wanted to disappear with that computer system of his. And Ami-san could, too."  
  
Hotaru entered the quarters she shared with Haruka and Michiru. She was still thinking about the mystery she'd uncovered. Haruka was stretched out on the sofa, reading a science fiction novel on computer crystal. She looked up and caught the absorbed countenance her adoptive daughter had.  
  
"Hey, Firefly," Haruka said, a smile in her voice but concern in her eyes. "You seem really focused on something. Trying to figure out a way to sneak pictures of naked girls into your bedroom?"  
  
"Papa!" huffed Hotaru, the way she always did when Haruka teased her.  
  
"Well if it's not that, what is it?"  
  
"I found out the king and queen locked access to the computer entries on androids,"  
Hotaru told her.  
  
"Ohhhhh," Haruka said.  
  
"Do you know why she did it?"  
  
"Yeah. Serenity's not too keen on androids. She was kind of traumatized by something that happened a long time ago."  
  
"What? Tell me, Papa, please!"  
  
"Well, I guess it won't hurt. I always thought Serenity overreacted anyway. Sit down - -  
it's kind of involved."  
  
Hotaru curled her legs up underneath her on the sofa and looked at her adoptive "father"  
with rapt interest.  
  
"It all started back in the twentieth century," Haruka began, "about a year or two after you left to come to the thirtieth century."  
- - - -  
1998; amid an audience of well-wishers and a sea of students, one young blonde with ribbons of hair trailing from "odango" shaped gathers sat and reflected on the course of her life. As she listened to the speech being given by the class Valedictorian, Ami Mizuno, she thought back on a scene scant days before. It was to her one of the greatest of miracles ever witnessed on Earth, namely that she saw her name listed with the other students who had passed their tests and were set to graduate high school.  
  
It was the very last name ranked before the cut-off, but she made it.  
  
Bobbing amid the sea of graduating classmates in the auditorium, Usagi turned and looked back. Searching through the crowd, she finally spotted her parents, back in the family section. Shingo was with them, looking bored, as was Rei. Usagi waved. Kenji waved back,  
beaming so much he threatened to burst. Ikuko waved, too, though with more dignity. Rei scowled and pointed back to Ami vehemently.  
  
"I wonder if Mamo-chan made it?" Usagi thought. She searched the audience as best she could, but saw no sign of the tall, dark love of her life.  
  
Her search ended when the rest of her class stood up. Standing up too, conspicuously late, Usagi faced the stage where the Principal stood at the podium. Ami was to his left, walking down the stairs to retake her seat. Usagi flashed her a 'thumbs up'. Ami blushed in acknowledgment. The Principal thanked the students and congratulated them on their achievement. After a few words in closing, he dismissed them to their homerooms.  
  
"What were you looking for during Ami's speech?" Makoto asked. She, Ami and Minako congregated around Usagi on the way to their homeroom.  
  
"Looking for 'Mamo-chan'?" taunted Minako.  
  
"No!" howled Usagi. "Well - - not at first. I wanted to see if Mom and Dad were enjoying the ceremony." Usagi chuckled. "Daddy looked like he was going to have kittens!"  
  
"Well, it's probably a pretty proud moment for them both," Makoto smiled. Then she grew wistful. "I wish my parents could have been here."  
  
"My father actually made the trip up from his cabin on Lake Biwa to see me," Ami said proudly.  
  
"That's nothing!" Minako announced. "My Dad actually pulled himself away from a Giant's game to be here - - and they're in a pennant run!" The other three looked at Minako skeptically. "Hey, you try it!"  
  
The four girls entered their homeroom. Komatsu-sensei was waiting for them. He gave the girls a proud smile and Ami felt her heart flutter - - just a little.  
  
Then Usagi bolted from the group. She ran up to the teacher, flung herself into his arms and gave him a crushing bear hug, much to everybody's amazement.  
  
"Oh, Sensei!" Usagi squealed. "Thank you! You're the absolute only reason I passed! You saved me from a life of despair and humiliation! Thank you!"  
  
"You're welcomed, Tsukino," Komatsu chuckled, easing her to the floor. "But the ability was in you all the time. I just got you interested enough to use it."  
  
"Well, you had a lot to do with it, Sensei," Minako grinned, easing up to him.  
  
"In your case, Aino, that's true," Komatsu smirked. "Don't ever forget, you owe me big time."  
  
Minako chuckled. "I'll send you a cassette of my first movie."  
  
"Say what you want, Sensei," Makoto offered humbly, "but you're the reason I finally broke into the 90th percentile."  
  
"It was simple, really," he said. "You just stopped thinking of yourself as a dumb,  
hulking tomboy and began thinking of yourself as the intelligent young woman you are." Makoto's cheeks broke out in crimson.  
  
"Sensei," Ami said quietly, with a trace of the old crush still in her eyes, "I've always had tremendous respect for every teacher I've had. But I can very easily say that you were the best."  
  
"Thank you," Komatsu said seriously, "Ami. I can't predict what my future students will be like, but I can safely say of the ones I've had so far, you were easily the best student I've ever taught."  
  
Noticing a group of anxious students gathering in the room, Komatsu broke the mood and turned to his desk.  
  
"Now I believe there are some pieces of paper I owe you all," he said, scooping up the diplomas. One by one he handed them out to all the students in his homeroom. When they were all dispersed, Ami came up holding a gift bag in her hands. He eyed it curiously.  
  
"What's this, Mizuno-san?" He took the bag and pulled out a jeweler's box. Inside the box was a rather expensive watch. Recalling previous incidents, he looked at Ami curiously.  
  
"This time it's from all of us," Ami smiled. "Please remember us, Sensei."  
  
"I will," he smiled back. "Please continue to make me proud, all of you."  
  
Outside, the four graduates walked through the crowd of happy families, looking for their own groups.  
  
"Any word from the art school you wanted to attend?" Ami asked.  
  
"Yeah!" Usagi gasped. "I got in! I start in August!"  
  
"Usagi, that's wonderful!"  
  
"And you're going to be all the way in England!" Usagi wailed.  
  
"I'm sorry," Ami whimpered. "Oxford just seemed to give me the best opportunity."  
  
"It's OK, Ames," Makoto told her with a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You go wherever you need to go and do whatever you need to do. We'll still be your friends, no matter what."  
  
"That's right," Minako added.  
  
"And I swear I'll write you everyday," Usagi nodded, "if I can ever figure out how to use that new e-mail thingy. And if I can't, I'll write you the old fashioned way!"  
  
"I'll look forward to it," Ami beamed.  
  
Just then they spotted Ami's mother and, to them, a strange, blocky man with light hair and thick round glasses. Ami waved and they came over.  
  
"Oh, honey," Ami's mother gushed, enveloping her daughter with her arms, "I'm so proud of you. All your hard work has paid off."  
  
"I'm glad you're proud of me, Mother," Ami hugged back. She slid out of the grasp and gave the man a hug, too.  
  
"The sky's the limit, Ami," he whispered. "Never forget that."  
  
"Oh, you've never met my father," Ami said, turning to her friends. "Dad, these are my friends Minako, Usagi and Makoto. This is my father, Yoji Mizuno."  
  
"We're honored to meet you, Sir," they said, bowing in unison.  
  
Waving to her friends, Ami went off with her parents.  
  
"So have you heard anything, Minako-chan?" Usagi asked.  
  
"I prefer not to dwell on such things," Minako replied jauntily. "It can give you stress lines."  
  
"Didn't get in, huh?" Makoto asked.  
  
"Big deal," Minako shrugged. "College would just interfere with my auditioning. How about you?"  
  
"Didn't take the test," Makoto shrugged. "I know enough about cooking to get a job right now. I might take a few culinary classes when I can afford them."  
  
Minako's parents walked up. Minako's mother, still prim and attractive, stood at a neutral distance from her daughter while Minako's father, squat and eternally looking on the verge of exhaustion, gathered his daughter in and hugged her.  
  
"So you finally stopped wasting your life and accomplished something," he said jokingly to her.  
  
"Yeah," Minako replied. "Nothing's out of my reach if I decide to go for it." She broke the embrace and faced her mother.  
  
"I'm," the woman began, "very proud of you, dear."  
  
"Thanks," Minako replied. "Guess hitting the books wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, huh?"  
  
"And if you just buckle down and take the test again, I'm sure you can pass it this time."  
  
"Mom!" Minako sighed. "Don't start!"  
  
"I don't want to see you become a 'Ronin', dear," her mother protested.  
  
"Come on, you two," her father sighed and led his favorite females off. Usagi and Makoto exchanged bemused glances.  
  
"OK, let's see it!" they heard Rei demand. The pair whirled and found her standing behind them, her hand outstretched. The Tsukinos were behind her. Shingo was enjoying every minute.  
  
"See what?" Usagi demanded.  
  
"The diploma," Rei responded. "I want to make sure it's legit."  
  
The blonde's face scrunched up. "There!" Usagi bellowed, shoving the diploma in Rei's face. "Read it yourself - - assuming you can!"  
  
Rei read every word while Usagi kept her arms tightly folded over her chest and her back to the girl.  
  
"I'll expect your apology," Usagi sniffed disdainfully.  
  
"You actually did it," Rei said softly, in awe. Usagi turned to her. "Congratulations. I'm very proud of you and I'm very happy for you."  
  
"Oh, Rei!" Usagi sobbed and the girls fell into each other's arms. They hugged, then pulled back to look at each other. Suddenly Usagi grew a devilish look on her face. "So where's yours?"  
  
"You know my school term doesn't end for a couple of weeks yet," Rei answered crossly.  
  
"Uh huh," Usagi smirked. "And are you sure you're going to be in the graduating class?"  
  
"AS IF!" roared the young miko. "I scored consistent ninety percents, bubble-brain! Graduating is a formality!"  
  
"I'm sure it is, Rei," Usagi nodded with mock sincerity.  
  
"Yeah, well I've forgotten more things than you'll ever know!" Rei roared back. "If you can graduate from high school, anybody can!"  
  
"I'm not doubting you, Rei," Usagi teased.  
  
"Oh," Rei fumed, "PTTTTTTTTTTTT!"  
  
"Ah! Special occasion - - no tongue wars," Makoto announced, stepping in between them. "Heard anything from priest school?"  
  
"Not until I graduate," Rei said, "but it looks good. How about the two of you?"  
  
"College isn't for me," Makoto shrugged. "The only thing I'd be interested in is the guys,  
anyway. But we've now officially got an artist-in-training in our midst."  
  
Rei's eyes bulged. "You got in?" Usagi nodded enthusiastically and the pair hugged again. Then Rei noticed Usagi's mood shift. "What's wrong?"  
  
"I," she whispered, embarrassed, "I guess Mamo-chan couldn't make it."  
  
"Maybe he couldn't get away from his classes," Rei offered. "Tokyo U. is pretty strict."  
  
"I guess," Usagi nodded.  
  
Suddenly it was there. To the amazement of all, as they'd seen and heard no one approach, a man's arm reached around Usagi from behind. Connected to the arm was a hand. In the hand was a single red rose. Usagi gasped in amazement.  
  
"Mamo-chan!" she whirled, gazing on the man she loved. She leaped up in his arms and hugged him as he supported her against his body. Kenji Tsukino's teeth clenched, but he kept silent. "Did you just get here?"  
  
"No, I was in the audience," he smiled, looking down on her. To Usagi it seemed like the love that always radiated from his gaze seemed just a little more intense than before. "I couldn't miss my best girl on the day she graduated. I have a gift for you, Usako." He looked up at the others, slightly embarrassed. "I'd like to give it to her in private - - if that's all right?"  
  
"I," Kenji began, but Ikuko quickly stepped in.  
  
"That will be fine. Come on, dear," and she emphatically led her husband off. Shingo, Rei and Makoto followed.  
  
"What is it, Mamo-chan?" Usagi squealed. "What did you get me?"  
  
"This," he replied hoarsely.  
  
Mamoru pulled out a ring box. Usagi gasped and stared at it in shock. For moments she couldn't move. Then quivering hands took the box from him and opened it. Inside was a simple gold band. It wasn't much to look at, but the implication it carried had more significance than the design. Usagi looked back up at Mamoru, numb.  
  
"Usako," he began, clutching her hands, "will you marry me?"  
  
With a start, Rei turned and stared at the distant couple. Makoto looked at her curiously.  
  
"What is it?" Makoto asked.  
  
Suddenly they heard Usagi squeal in delight. She flung herself into Mamoru's arms and began kissing him wildly. Everyone on the school grounds turned and looked. Makoto felt her mouth open in surprise.  
  
"Oh my," Makoto whispered in shock. Her mouth curled into a smile. "Rei, did he just do what I think he just did?"  
  
"Uh huh," Rei nodded. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her mouth was pulled into an ear to ear grin. "Couldn't you just die?"  
  
continued in Chapter 2


	2. Changeling

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 2: "Changeling"  
  
By Bill K.  
  
"I'm going to get married!" Usagi squealed, jumping up and down.  
  
"Mommmmmmmm!" Shingo howled. "Tell her to stop!"  
  
"Shingo," Ikuko sighed with thinning patience, "this doesn't happen often in a girl's life. Let your sister enjoy it."  
  
Shingo scowled and folded his arms over his chest.  
  
"Mom!" Usagi gasped suddenly. "There's so much to do! I've got to get a gown! I've got to get catering! I've got to decide on where to have the ceremony!"  
  
"I'm sure Rei would be happy to let you have it at Hikawa Shrine," Ikuko told her.  
  
"In a western-style wedding gown? Obviously you don't know Rei that well." Usagi's eyes suddenly bugged out. "Oh my, am I going to have a Shinto ceremony or a western one! MOM, HELP!"  
  
"I'm going out," Shingo huffed. The fourteen-year-old shuffled out the door with a scowl of contempt etched on his face.  
  
"Calm down, Usagi," Ikuko said with maternal strength and confidence. "I suppose if you're intent on wearing a western gown, you should have a western ceremony. Still, I would at least ask Rei about holding it at the shrine. After all, she might be offended if you don't. Now about catering - - your father knows some people and he can arrange the reception. We'll need invitations, too - - and try to keep the guest list under three hundred."  
  
"If I have to," Usagi sighed. "But what about my gown? We don't have much time! I want to have the ceremony before Ami leaves for England!"  
  
"Which won't be for two months yet," Ikuko reminded her. "You'll have time."  
  
"No, I have to do this now - - today!" The doorbell rang. "Oh, who could that be?"  
  
Opening the door, Usagi found Ami on the front step.  
  
"AMI, YOU'RE A LIFE SAVER!" Usagi squealed, hugging her friend.  
  
"I am?" Ami replied, bewildered. "Are you in some sort of pain?"  
  
"No, I'm about to go crazy! I need to get a gown for the wedding! Please say you'll help me pick one out! Please!"  
  
"Of course, Usagi," Ami smiled. "I just came over to congratulate you. I only just now heard the news."  
  
"Nobody called you?"  
  
"I've," Ami hesitated, "been occupied with something. But I'm completely at your disposal, Usagi, for as long as you need me."  
  
"Great! Let's go!" She turned to her mother. "Can I borrow the credit card, Mom?"  
  
Ikuko gave her a very skeptical look.  
  
"Mommmmmmm!" Usagi howled.  
  
"I'll make sure she doesn't spend too much, Mrs. Tsukino," Ami told her.  
  
"Ami, I thought you were going to help me!" whined Usagi.  
  
"All right," Ikuko sighed, "but only because Ami's with you. And remember, dear, you don't have to be too extravagant because you'll look beautiful in anything."  
  
The two eighteen-year-olds headed for the door.  
  
"I've never been one for fashion, Usagi," Ami ventured. "I hope my advice can help you."  
  
"Hmm," Usagi thought. "You're right. We need to get Naru, too."  
- - - -  
Three eighteen-year-old girls in a bridal shop was not unusual to the clerks who worked there - - and neither were the giggles, gasps and squeals that emanated from them on a regular basis. The woman at the cash register just hoped they were there to buy something and not just window-shopping.  
  
"Oh, look at that one!" Naru gasped and sighed simultaneously.  
  
"It's very pretty," Ami nodded. "It's also very expensive."  
  
"Ami, you're only married once," Naru countered.  
  
"Actually, current statistics would render that statement . . ." Ami began, but Naru threw up her hand with a stern look and stopped Ami's reply in its tracks.  
  
"It's nice," Usagi shrugged.  
  
"Curb your enthusiasm," Naru scowled.  
  
"It's just," Usagi began. "I don't know. It's just not right. I want the exact right gown if I'm finally going to be marrying Mamo-chan."  
  
"Usagi, you're putting too much thought into this," Naru counseled her. "Take the advice of an old friend: Mamoru's not going to care what you're wearing. He's marrying you, not your gown. He won't care if you're naked." Naru grew a sly grin. "In fact, he might prefer it."  
  
"Naru!" gasped Usagi, her cheeks reddening.  
  
"Exactly what kind of dress are you looking for, Usagi?" Ami asked. "It might help our search if we define the parameters more closely."  
  
"I can't explain it," Usagi shrugged. "I'll know it when I see it."  
  
They turned to another mannequin modeling a gown. It was white with a low bodice and off the shoulder short sleeves. Rather than gather at the waist, the gown gathered below the bodice with a flowing train to the floor. The gathers were tied in the back with a huge bow that resembled the wings of a butterfly, while white opera gloves completed the ensemble. Usagi stared at it curiously.  
  
"You're not considering THAT, are you?" Naru asked anxiously.  
  
"No, it's not what I'm looking for," Usagi mumbled. "It's just that it looks familiar."  
  
"Maybe it's last year's model," Naru shrugged.  
  
The trio walked on to another display.  
  
"So are you going to show me your engagement ring or do I have to hire a private detective?" Naru asked. Absently Usagi showed her the ring on her hand. "Usagi, that's the ring he gave you two years ago."  
  
"Well, that's my engagement ring, technically," Usagi replied.  
  
"I thought he proposed yesterday."  
  
"He did. The ring he showed me was my wedding ring." Usagi blushed. "He said he'd keep it until I said 'I do'."  
  
"Then that's not your engagement ring," Naru protested.  
  
"Yes it is. But Mamo-chan said he didn't want to ask me until I was mature enough to say yes or no. And besides, um, a lot of things were happening back then and he didn't get around to actually asking me to marry him until now."  
  
"So you've actually been engaged for two years?"  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"YOU'VE BEEN ENGAGED FOR TWO YEARS AND I'M JUST FINDING OUT ABOUT IT?"  
  
"Well, I said a lot of things were happening back then! I'm sorry, Naru."  
  
"If it makes you feel any better, Naru," Ami offered, "we all thought it was just a-a promissory ring, not an actual engagement."  
  
"Can I help you ladies?" one of the sales clerks inquired. If they were serious customers,  
they'd been there long enough to need help. If they were window-shopping, they'd been there far too long and needed encouragement to waste someone else's time. Usagi looked the display over one more time and heaved a heavy sigh.  
  
"Do you have anything nicer?" she asked in innocent earnest.  
  
"But at a reasonable price?" added Ami.  
  
"But quality is definitely more important than price," Naru interjected. Then she gave Ami an impatient look.  
- - - -  
The shopping trip had proven fruitless. Four shops and dozens of gowns later, Usagi was beginning to despair that she'd never find the right gown. After bidding good-bye to Ami, Usagi and Naru hunkered down in the library and poured over every copy of every bridal magazine they could find. Yet nothing struck Usagi as "the perfect gown". Bidding Naru farewell, Usagi noted the time and remembered the other duty she had.  
  
Stepping off the bus, the bride-to-be looked cautiously up the looming stairs. She expelled a condemned breath. Usagi ventured up the stairs to Hikawa Shrine with growing trepidation. She knew Rei was her friend and thought she would be supportive of whatever decision she'd make regarding the wedding. On the other hand, Rei had very traditional beliefs in many areas, particularly when it came to religion. The thought of Usagi having a western ceremony might be bad enough. The thought of her having it at Hikawa Shrine might send Rei over the edge and Usagi didn't want to invoke the infamous Hino massive temper if she could avoid it. Or worse, Rei might play at going along and be deeply hurt. That made Usagi even more ill at ease, for she never, ever wanted to hurt anyone.  
  
When she got to the top step, Usagi spotted Makoto and Minako talking with Rei. That was good - - they could be hidden behind if Rei became violent.  
  
"Hi everyone!" Usagi called out.  
  
"A major event like this happens in your life and YOU DON'T IMMEDIATELY CALL ME?" roared Minako.  
  
"I'm sorry," grimaced Usagi.  
  
"It's OK," Minako grinned, satisfied that her performance had fooled Usagi. "You probably had other things on your mind - - like the wedding night." She leered at Usagi.  
  
"Minako!" Usagi gasped, reddening. "You don't discuss things like that!"  
  
"I do," Minako said, surprised.  
  
"Don't pay any attention to her, Usagi," sighed Rei. "It only encourages her." The miko folded her hands behind her back and walked up to Usagi. Usagi thought nothing of it until she realized Rei wasn't stopping. When she was less than a quarter of an inch from the girl, Rei stopped and smiled an almost genuine smile. "Now, you were planning on having the wedding ceremony here," and she stuck her face into Usagi's until they were practically nose to nose,  
"weren't you?"  
  
"Um," Usagi gulped, "if it's all right with you?"  
  
"Of course it's all right," Rei smiled sweetly. "You're one of my best friends. I'd be honored to see you married on this holy site." She paused a beat for effect. "And if you had it anywhere else in Japan, I'd seriously have to consider maiming you."  
  
The three girls looked at Rei, who was still smiling sweetly and innocently.  
  
"Seriously, Usagi," Rei said gently, "I want you to have it here. It would mean a lot to me."  
  
"Even though I'm having a western ceremony?" asked Usagi.  
  
Rei's eyes grew wide. Her lips thinned. A vein popped out on her forehead.  
  
"Uh oh, she's going to blow," Makoto whispered. "Women and children first!"  
  
"Just call me 'Baby Mina-chan'!" Minako replied.  
  
"A western," Rei fumed, "ceremony?" Rei took a few moments to breathe deeply while Usagi cringed. "All right. If it's what you want. I'll let Grandpa know." The girl shook her head and her long black hair bobbed like a horse's tail. "A western ceremony."  
  
"Is that going to be a problem for Grandpa?" Usagi squeaked.  
  
"No," Rei smiled. "He can do 'western'. He's very flexible."  
  
"He'd have to be, considering some of the places his hand ends up," muttered Minako. Makoto smothered a laugh while Rei glared daggers at her.  
  
"Have you set a date yet?" Rei asked.  
  
"No," scowled Usagi. "But it has to be soon! I want to have it before Ami leaves for England."  
  
"That OK with Mamoru?" Makoto asked.  
  
"Yes, Mamo-chan's fine with it. But I don't know if I'm going to make it! I spent all day looking for a gown and didn't find anything! I think I wore out Ami and Naru both!"  
  
"If you can wait until Sunday, I'll help you shop," Rei offered.  
  
"COULD YOU?" squealed Usagi. "I've always admired your fashion sense!"  
  
"Sure," the miko smiled. "I'd do it today, but I've still got finals to study for."  
  
"I can do it today," Minako volunteered, then glanced maliciously at Rei, "because I don't have anymore finals to study for."  
  
"You probably didn't study for them when you did," Rei scowled.  
  
"You're on, Mina-chan!" Usagi nodded. "Between you tonight and Rei Sunday, we're bound to find SOMETHING!"  
  
"Don't leave me out of this!" Makoto exclaimed. "I've had my interview today, so I'm totally free tomorrow."  
  
"You got an interview already?" Minako gasped. "When were you going to tell us?"  
  
"If I got it," Makoto blushed. "I didn't want to jinx it."  
  
"Where's the job?" Rei asked.  
  
"If I get it," Makoto replied. Then she pointed at Rei. "And don't you use that fire mumbo-jumbo to find out, either!"  
  
"OK," Rei giggled.  
  
Suddenly her giggling stopped. Rei froze, listening to a voice only she could hear. The others stopped, too, by now accustomed to the sudden premonitions of the mysterious maiden in white and red.  
  
"Transform," she whispered. Makoto and Minako instantly had their henshin sticks out.  
  
"What is it?" Usagi asked as her two friends transformed behind her.  
  
"I don't know. It's too vague. But I'm getting a strong sense of a threat approaching." Rei snapped out of her semi-trance and glared at Usagi. "So transform, idiot!"  
  
"All right!" fussed Usagi. She and Rei transformed together.  
  
The four senshi watched the top of the steps, directed by the gaze of Sailor Mars, waiting for whatever approached to appear. Each one was tensed, ready to spring to the attack or move aside from an attack as the situation might demand. Experience lent steel to their nerves, though each girl was disappointed and anxious about a new menace appearing now when their lives had reached an exciting and intimidating crossroads.  
  
The setting sun cast a shadow toward them from a head emerging from behind the steps. Momentarily shrouded in shadow, the figure couldn't be totally made out until it reached the top step. Sailor Moon's eyes widened.  
  
"Rei, its just Ami!" Sailor Moon fumed, turning to the fire senshi.  
  
But Sailor Mars had her index fingers steepled to her face and her brow knit in intense concentration. To Sailor Moon's astonishment, a tiny spark jumped from the steepled fingers.  
  
"FIRE SOUL!" Sailor Mars roared, and the spark exploded into combustion.  
  
Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus lunged at Sailor Mars even as the flame grew and swirled into a massive fireball. They grabbed Mars and threw her to the ground even as the massive fireball launched past Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon's eyes grew to saucers as she turned around in time to witness the fireball rocket across the path of the shrine and explode into Ami, consuming her inside its licking flames. Her hands to her mouth, Sailor Moon turned away rather than witness her friend immolated.  
  
"Rei, have you gone crazy?" wailed Sailor Moon. "That's Ami!"  
  
The flame dissipated. Sailor Moon's eyes were caught first by the surprised look on the face of Venus, then on Jupiter. She turned back to look, fully expecting to see charred bone and blackened flesh where once her friend had been. What she saw, though, was the last thing she expected.  
  
Mouth dropping, Sailor Moon took several cautious steps toward - - it. For where Ami had been, there was now a misshapen metal skeleton and burned away synthetic flesh and muscle. Sailor Moon stared at it as she numbly approached.  
  
"Don't get too close!" Mars shouted out a warning.  
  
"I don't believe it," Sailor Moon whispered. "Ami's a - - a robot?"  
  
"Actually," the thing's misshapen head turned and said to her, its realistic eyes staring up from singed and melted chromium aluminum orbital sockets, in a damaged approximation of Ami's voice, "the proper term is 'android'."  
  
"It's not Ami!" roared Mars. She struggled to get up, then shoved Jupiter and Venus. "Will you two get off me! It's not Ami! I could tell it was a machine the minute I saw it!"  
  
"How?" asked Jupiter.  
  
"That 'thing' didn't have a spirit aura," Mars snapped. "It's because machines don't possess spirits!"  
  
"An interesting metaphysical hypothesis," the slagged android croaked out, sending chills through Sailor Moon. "I wish I had the time to debate the subject with you, Sailor Mars. But at the moment, I am experiencing," and a spark of electricity arced from her scalp, then died,  
"massive systems failure."  
  
"B-But," Sailor Moon said through her horror, "if you're not Ami - - then what happened to her? What did you do with Ami?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Sailor Moon," the android replied, still speaking with Ami's voice, "but my programming prevents me from revealing that information."  
  
"Who made you?" demanded Sailor Venus. "Who sent you here? What's your purpose?"  
  
"I'm sorry, Sailor Venus," the android replied. "My programming prevents me from revealing that information."  
  
"Then what can you tell us?" Sailor Moon cried.  
  
The gleaming skull looked up at her.  
  
"I can tell you," it replied haltingly, "that I had fun today - - shopping with you - - and Naru-chan. I hope you - - and Mamoru-san - - will be very - - hap . . ."  
  
The skull froze in mid-sentence, staring up at Sailor Moon like a picture in freeze-frame.  
  
Mars, Venus and Jupiter exchanged worried glances at each other. Then they looked to Sailor Moon. She was looking down at the scrap metal and charred foam and plastic, at the metal doll that had become the changeling for her friend Ami. She wondered - - they all wondered - - where was Ami Mizuno and was she still alive?  
  
continued in Chapter 3


	3. A Better Mousetrap

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 3: "A Better Mousetrap"  
  
by Bill K.  
  
For the first time in a while, Ami Mizuno possessed conscious thought. Realizing she was laying on her side on a cushion, she pushed herself upright. As she did, her mind tried to focus jumbled thoughts into coherent patterns. Her droopy eyes looked around.  
  
"From the way my body is reacting," Ami thought, fighting the disorientation she felt, as she looked her surroundings over, "I must have encountered an overwhelming electrical shock - -  
perhaps a taser or stun gun. I clearly lost consciousness. But who could have done it? And where am I now?"  
  
She was in a roughly six by six by twelve foot transparent cube. She sat on a bunk consisting of a single mattress and pillow covering a polymer support that ran horizontally from one side of the cube to the other along the back. At the foot of the bunk was a floor commode built into the cube. It was about three feet wide and two feet off the floor. On the wall opposite the bunk was another span from wall to wall. It was three feet off the ground and two feet wide. On one side was a well with a plate. Beneath it was a bench, also of clear polymer. On the other was a computer keyboard, its cable disappearing into the floor. There was no monitor or evidence of the hard drive it was connected to.  
  
Ami looked down. Her clothes were gone, save for her conservative white bra and panties. Instantly uncomfortable, Ami's arms folded over her chest as she felt her cheeks burn. Trying to dismiss the humiliation she felt, the girl surveyed the outer room through the clear panels of the cube. The outer room was made up of white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling. The decor was so stark that one had to strain to see where the walls intersected. Still,  
with the patience of a scientist, Ami looked the room over until her persistence was rewarded. Nestled in the corner where the walls met the ceiling was a tiny observation camera. Darting to the opposite corner, her eyes spotted another. Both cameras were trained on her cell.  
  
"This seems to be a holding facility of some sort," Ami thought as her hand ran over the polymer wall of the cube, covertly judging its strength. "Obviously from the presence of the bed and an eating station, whoever is holding me plans to do so for a lengthy time."  
  
Ami turned away from the wall and looked up at one of the monitoring cameras. She opened her mouth to challenge her watching captor or captors.  
  
To her horror, nothing came out of her mouth. Ami's hand went up to her throat - - and that's when she felt the metal band around it. A pneumatic door huffed open to her right. Ami whirled and looked at the person entering.  
  
"You exceeded the recovery time I calculated for you from the effects of the taser," the woman said, staring straight at Ami as she calmly, purposefully walked into the room. "My compliments to you for the efficiency of your physical conditioning."  
  
Ami stared, unable to ward off shock. It was Viluy. Though this woman was about ten years older than the smug, arrogant sixteen-year-old that had aligned herself with the aliens led by Pharaoh 90 just three years previous, there was no mistaking the face. Her hair was still a platinum white and still fell in a leisurely curl to her shoulders. Her figure was still ample, but over ten years her frame had elongated to make her even more impressive.  
  
The snowflake pattern costume was gone. In its place, she wore a simple beige knit top,  
close-fitting with a turtleneck, a navy skirt hemmed just above the knee, and a white lab coat. Her navy pumps had conservative two and one half-inch heels. It was Viluy grown up, but somehow it was Viluy. Ami would never forget the malice of those ice water blue eyes glaring at her.  
  
"You're surprised to see me," Viluy observed and allowed herself the merest hint of a triumphant smile. Ami tried to speak again, and again nothing would come out. "You can't speak, Mizuno, so stop trying. That band around your throat emits a small electrical current, just enough to keep your vocal cords paralyzed."  
  
Viluy walked casually, confidently over to the cube and tapped on the wall near the keyboard.  
  
"This keyboard is connected to a computerized voice synthesizer," Viluy told her. "Any communication you wish to make will have to be done through it."  
  
The light of understanding came to Ami's eyes. She cautiously approached the keyboard,  
moved the stool over to it, and sat down in front of it.  
  
"I'm sure you have a million questions, Mizuno," Viluy said, a hint of mocking in her tone. "But then, I've made no secret of my admiration for your curiosity."  
  
Ignoring the mocking, Ami began typing on the keyboard.  
  
"This is a test," a hidden speaker said in a synthetic voice that was eerily like her own.  
  
Ami nodded with grim satisfaction. Then she quickly typed another phrase. However this time no sound was produced. Puzzled, she looked up to Viluy.  
  
"I took the precaution of eliminating four words from the synthesizer's vocabulary file,"  
Viluy said smugly. "If you haven't deduced it already, the four words are 'Mercury', 'star', 'power' and 'makeup'."  
  
She observed Ami's spirits fall with private glee.  
  
"I also felt it necessary to relieve you of your clothing," Viluy continued. "With a mind such as yours, you might be able to find a way to escape using your shoes or belt or the cloth of your skirt. I know I could." Then she smiled like a cat playing with a mouse. "The humiliated look on your face is just a bonus."  
  
"Why am I here?" the speaker reported after Ami typed.  
  
"Because of all the people inhabiting the Earth," Viluy replied, calmly and dispassionately,  
"you are the one person I regard as a potential threat. You possess both the intellect to figure out my plans and the ability to impede them. Because of that, you had to be eliminated from the equation."  
  
"Then why am I still alive?" Ami asked through the synthesizer. "Or were you just keeping me alive long enough to gloat?"  
  
"Gloat?" Viluy asked, eyebrow arched. "A need to gloat implies an emotional desire at odds with rational thought. I try to keep myself above such displays of emotion - - unlike you." Viluy casually sauntered around the room as she spoke, her arms clasp behind her. "It would be simpler to kill you - - in the short run. But I just can't bring myself to destroy the intellect you possess. Perhaps my judgment is being clouded by sentiment in this case, but I still believe that wonderful mind of yours can be harnessed - - harvested, if necessary." Viluy glanced at Ami with a puzzling smirk. "And history will ultimately prove me right."  
  
Ami felt a chill run through her.  
  
"My friends will find me," Ami typed.  
  
"Your friends don't even know you're missing," Viluy informed her.  
  
Without waiting for a reaction, Viluy took a remote from her lab coat pocket and aimed it at the wall. Part of the wall pulled down, revealing a video monitor. A picture came on. Ami gasped silently. In it, Usagi and Naru were shopping for gowns in a bridal shop, oblivious to the fact that they were being so closely monitored. Ami viewed the pictures with a critical eye. From the proximity of the shot, the camera had to be practically next to them, yet neither girl seemed alarmed.  
  
Periodically a hand would come into the picture, seemingly from the person holding the camera. Was one of her friends unwittingly carrying a miniaturized camera, transmitting every move Usagi was making? But to what end? Ami shook her head. That hypothesis had nothing to do with Viluy's earlier statement.  
  
Suddenly the camera shot passed by a mirror and Ami knew. Reflected in the mirror were Usagi, Naru - - and Ami. But she knew she hadn't gone on this trip with Usagi and Naru.  
  
"This is a download of actual events," Viluy said, anticipating her captive's question. "I don't recognize the one with the chestnut hair, but the blonde is your friend, Usagi, correct? The one who majored in 'lunch'?"  
  
"An impostor?" Ami typed. "Someone made up to look like me?"  
  
"No, but you're on the right path," Viluy replied, enjoying the game. "Eliminate your preconceptions, Mizuno."  
  
Ami looked at the picture again. As she studied it, she recalled what Viluy's fields of expertise were. Her eyes widened.  
  
"An android?" she typed.  
  
"Precisely," Viluy replied.  
  
"But even you didn't possess the technical knowledge to produce a lifelike android," the speaker said for Ami. "An achievement such as this is a huge leap from nano-bots."  
  
"Correct again," Viluy replied with a hint of pride. "It was beyond the technical capabilities of the sixteen-year-old you remember. But I've done a lot of growing in the last nine years and eleven months. And I also had access to some - - truly remarkable discoveries." Viluy turned away and looked up at the ceiling, grinning almost insanely, as she leaned against the wall of the cube. "It all seems so simple now, Mizuno, given what I know. Back then I thought I knew everything! And yet, there was so much I didn't know - - chief among them that there WAS so much I didn't know."  
  
Her gaze dropped, revealing her smile had contracted into a satisfied smirk.  
  
"I was an arrogant little fool back then. I confess it willingly. I actually thought I could string along the beings that had possession of Dr. Tomoe and his daughter until I could devise a way to take their power from them. Yes, I knew - - I was the only one of our ridiculous little band of 'witches' who recognized what Dr. Tomoe and his brat really were." Viluy grew somber. "But I realize now the ending of that chapter for me was inevitable, in one form or another."  
  
"How did you survive?" Ami asked through the synthesizer. "And how have you managed to age so much in only three years?"  
  
"As much as I'd like to take credit for planning for my escape," Viluy replied wistfully, "it was the result of what so many scientific discoveries of the past are the result of: an accident."  
  
Ami cocked her head curiously.  
  
"Though the designs were mine, my nano-bots were powered by energy supplied from the Pharaoh 90 universe," Viluy explained. "The energy was relayed to the wristband I wore and in turn broadcast to the nano-bots. When they turned on me, they managed to damage the wristband. The energy recoiled upon itself . . ."  
  
"And caused a matter-energy flux?" the speaker reported Ami saying.  
  
"You're branching into dimensional physics?" Viluy smiled. Ami blushed. "Very good,  
Mizuno. Yes, when I disappeared, I wasn't 'consumed', as I believe everyone else assumed, by the nano-bots. Every organic part of me was hurled into - - what I can best describe as a temporal limbo."  
  
"Please explain."  
  
"Oh, Mizuno, you should see it!" Viluy gasped. "The only thing I could perceive was a dense white mist. I had the sensation of a solid platform beneath me, but nothing registered either visually or audibly. It seemed like I was lost in a vast expanse of - - nothing! For a moment, I thought I'd died and this was the afterlife. And then I heard a being approach. It was a woman. I couldn't make out any features, but she seemed dressed in a green and white uniform,  
much like your sailor friends. And she carried a very long staff with a brilliant ruby red orb at the top."  
  
"Oh my goodness!" thought Ami. "She's describing Sailor Pluto! She must have been transported into the temporal corridor we used to travel to the future and defeat Prince Dimando and Wise Man!"  
  
"You know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Viluy observed. Ami turned away quickly. "Aren't you full of surprises. Well, we'll have to discuss this more in depth later on. Suffice it to say that when I saw what looked like another senshi approaching me, I turned and ran." Viluy smiled. "I didn't get far - - and yet I traveled a much greater distance than I could have ever imagined."  
  
Not trusting herself to respond, Ami waited for Viluy to fill in the details.  
  
"Do you know how famous the senshi were in 2216?" Viluy asked.  
  
"You were transported into the future," Ami typed. "You said 'were'."  
  
"Yes, the senshi were no longer alive. How long were you expecting to live, Mizuno?" Ami looked away again. "No matter. The advances in technology in 2216 will be remarkable."  
  
"And you were able to survive in the future for over nine years?" Ami typed. "I can't imagine it, unless there was some sort of technological stagnation - - which clearly there wasn't. You must have been at a terrible handicap, both socially and educationally."  
  
"Naturally," Viluy nodded. "Imagine bringing an eighteenth century person into the twentieth century. Then take that disadvantage and double it. That was the world I was greeted with."  
  
"How did you manage it?"  
  
"Are you truly interested?" Viluy asked, "or are you just stalling for time to try to figure out a means of escape?" She observed Ami critically. Ami stood her ground, trying not to show anything that would give Viluy another advantage. "Yes, I guess you are - - that insatiable Mizuno curiosity. Do you want to know the future, Mizuno? Or do you already know it - - you and your sailor friends?"  
  
"If there's nothing to tell," Ami typed.  
  
Viluy scowled. "My arrival wasn't noticed by many. To the humans living in that future era, I was an anomaly, but they were too busy fighting for their lives to dwell upon it."  
  
"Fighting whom?"  
  
"Androids," Viluy replied. She seemed to have a look of admiration when she said it. "Armies of mechanical humanoids. They look like us. But they never sleep. They never tire. They're unencumbered by human emotions such as sorrow, pity, remorse."  
  
"And incapable of creative thought," Ami answered through her keyboard.  
  
"Quite true," Viluy smirked. "That will be one of the advantages humans have over them in that future era. Only a human could create a virulent program that destroys other programs with speed and precision and utter ruthless malice and find a way to spread it to a million systems in a matter of moments."  
  
"I know what a computer virus is," Ami typed. "There's been a great deal of progress in web technology in the three years you've been away."  
  
"No doubt used by morons hoping to create some immature aura of superiority or by others for simple avarice. Ah, Mizuno, they lack vision, all of them. In my hands, I could bring this dawning computer age to its knees in days."  
  
"Is that your plan?" Ami typed.  
  
"Not at all," Viluy strutted. "Any computer that can hack into another computer can be hacked into. There are too many other agencies out there to hold at bay for long. It would be a short-term victory. And I didn't spend nine plus years of my life studying and learning on the run, keeping one step ahead of androids trying to snuff my life out for being human just for a single short-term victory."  
  
"Amazing."  
  
"What is?"  
  
"Stranded in a dystopian future and all you could think about was conquest?"  
  
"Don't judge me, Mizuno, just because I have the courage to act upon my natural superiority and you don't." Viluy regained control of herself. "Besides, you've jumped to an inaccurate conclusion. I didn't spend nearly ten years in the future plotting, as you assume. I spent it learning. New ideas and new technologies were at my fingertips, Mizuno. So what if I spent half of my waking life eluding capture or warding off hunger and exposure. I spent the other half absorbing all the knowledge gained by society over two hundred years. I know things now that you couldn't even begin to hypothesize."  
  
Ami studied her captor, trying to decide whether Viluy was ranting from paranoia and dementia or from excitement over what she really did know.  
  
"And then," Viluy smiled, "I discovered something that gave me impetus to find a way to return to this era." Ami started to type, but Viluy waved her hand. "Don't bother. I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything. I want you to know what I'm doing. I want to see the grudging admiration in your eyes even as you give me Sailor Moon's tired philosophy about love and charity."  
  
"Sailor Moon is right," Ami typed. "You must not be as smart as you think if you can't see it."  
  
"Sailor Moon is a joke told around campfires in the twenty-third century," Viluy sneered. "Do you want to know when she died, Mizuno? 2163. A battalion of androids stormed her crystal palace and stunned her into submission with electric field weapons. Then they tore her to pieces."  
  
Ami looked on in horror.  
  
"The rest of your friends were already dead. All except you. You were alive - - of a sorts. You led the assault on the crystal palace."  
  
"Impossible," came the synthesized reply.  
  
"I'm only repeating what I saw," smirked Viluy. "Don't worry, Mizuno. You weren't yourself. After your capture, your brain was removed for study and replaced with a cybernetic computer server. That's what led to Sailor Moon's ultimate defeat. Apparently she just couldn't strike down her good friend Sailor Mercury."  
  
"You're just trying to provoke me," Ami typed, trying to keep her hands steady.  
  
"I've seen the records," Viluy replied calmly. "Androids have memories that can be retrieved and stored, and they don't have to do it in books. I watched her die, Mizuno, as you stood over her, staring blankly."  
  
"It won't happen that way," the synthesizer reported. "I'll make sure it doesn't turn out that way."  
  
"Ah, but I'm here to make sure that it does."  
  
Ami stared up at her in shock.  
  
"Do you see that my android duplicate of you has left your friend Usagi?" Viluy asked. "Do you see where it's going?"  
  
"The Tanaka Electronics headquarters," Ami replied.  
  
"Yes. My android has the ability to penetrate the building's security through speed and stealth. And if it is spotted, why it's just a young girl who got lost while seeking the recruitment office and an internship with the company. You have a very innocent face, Mizuno. People tend not to suspect you of duplicity."  
  
Ami watched the monitor as the android penetrated further into the building. It entered the outer office of the company president. A secretary got up to greet her. The android was very pleasant and disarming, then struck with the speed of light, breaking the woman's neck. It caught her and hid the body behind the desk.  
  
Entering through the doors to the inner office, the android scanned the room until it found the president, Shinji Tanaka. Tanaka just had time to turn around before he felt an impossibly strong hand close around his throat until it was crushed.  
  
Viluy turned and found Ami looking away in disgust.  
  
"You'll never learn if you turn away from something new just because you find it reprehensible," Viluy cautioned her.  
  
"Why, Viluy?"  
  
"Viluy no longer exists. She was a creation of a juvenile mind playing at life and death. I prefer my real name of Yui Bidou, if you don't mind."  
  
"What do you hope to accomplish?" Ami typed.  
  
"Power," Viluy replied. "The power to control my environment. Business controls the people far more than governments do. Business also controls production and the economy. Through my androids, I will control business. It won't be easy. There will come discovery and with it rebellion. There will be times of strife. But eventually there will be an ordered society,  
based on logic and intellect."  
  
"It won't work as you envision," Ami typed.  
  
"Oh, but it will, Mizuno!" Viluy laughed. "That's what I discovered when I was in the twenty-third century! I was the one who set the hordes of androids loose on the world! Now - -  
in this era!" Viluy pressed her hands and face up against the lucite partition. "I've merely come back to fulfill my destiny."  
  
continued in chapter 4


	4. A Code X Moment

BLINDED BY SCIENCE Chapter 4: "A Code X Moment"

by Bill K.

They watched together as a fireball accelerated toward the monitor's point of view,  
growing larger and larger until it engulfed the screen. The picture turned red for a moment.

When it recovered, the point of view was different. Sailor Moon and the other senshi towered over them, looking down at them like they were bugs on the walk.

"An interesting metaphysical hypothesis," they heard something say. It sounded almost human, but was distorted and clipped with electrical shorts. "I wish I had the time to debate the subject with you, Sailor Mars. But at the moment, I am experiencing," the speech was interrupted by large static interference, "massive systems failure."

"B-But," Sailor Moon said through her horror, "if you're not Ami - - then what happened to her? What did you do with Ami?"

"I'm sorry, Sailor Moon," Ami heard in an artificial simulation of her own voice while she sat in her plastic cube cell, "but my programming prevents me from revealing that information."

"Who made you?" demanded Sailor Venus. "Who sent you here? What's your purpose?"

"I'm sorry, Sailor Venus," came the response as Viluy listened and ground her teeth in growing anger and frustration. "My programming prevents me from revealing that information."

"Then what can you tell us?" Sailor Moon cried.

The point of view adjusted slightly, focusing solely on Sailor Moon.

"I can tell you," came the reply of someone - - something clearly on the verge of dying,  
"that I had fun today - - shopping with you - - and Naru-chan. I hope you - - and Mamoru-san - -  
will be very - - hap . . ."

The picture dissolved into black.

"NO!" roared Viluy. In a fit of rage, she flung her remote control across the room. It smashed against the wall near the monitor. "They destroyed it! How? How did they know?"

"Apparently your android wasn't as perfect as you thought," Ami solemnly typed.

Viluy took a moment to regain control.

"Obviously," Viluy replied. "Perfection is a state of being that is statistically unlikely. Everything has a flaw, no matter how small. I merely failed to observe and plan for the flaw of that android." She flashed Ami a mirthless grin. "We learn from our mistakes."

Viluy walked up to the vinyl wall separating them. She pressed up close, her eyes glued on Ami, taking in her every expression and movement.

"Perhaps you'd like to tell me where I erred?" Viluy asked with an undercurrent of menace. Ami remained silent. "Perhaps the error wasn't in the android? Perhaps the error was a situational analysis failure? I failed to thoroughly analyze the characteristics of your other friends?" Her eyes narrowed. "That miko who transformed into Sailor Mars, for instance?"

Ami tried to control the burning of her cheeks.

"I can still read you like a textbook, Mizuno. But let's examine the facts. Sailor Mars has demonstrated abilities that less sophisticated people would classify as supernatural. Japanese history has been littered with myths and legends about mikos with supernatural spiritual abilities,  
abilities that could be easily explained as heightened extra-sensory perception. Is that what's in play here? What ability does this miko possess on top of her ability as Sailor Mars - - telepathy,  
or perhaps precognition?"

"Perhaps you're just rationalizing a poorly thought out design," Ami typed. "Perhaps your entire plan is based on false data and illogical conclusions.

"Don't change the subject, Mizuno," Viluy smiled like a cat with a cornered mouse. "We were talking about this miko." Ami stayed still. "I understand you don't want to help me. You are a prisoner, after all." Viluy pressed up against the clear wall. "But don't think for a moment I can't figure it out. I just may not have the time."

Viluy turned and headed for the door at an even, confident pace.

"After all," she said over her shoulder, "I have other people to replace."

Ami didn't notice the door close behind Viluy. She was far too busy trying to figure a way out of her current situation. - - - -  
"What are we going to do?" wailed Sailor Moon. She stared at the melted and charred remnants of the Ami-android, teetering on complete panic.

"The first thing we do is not panic," Jupiter told her. Sailor Moon felt her friend's hands gently clamp onto her shoulders, silently offering support, guidance and restraint. Her terror ebbed a little.

"All Artemis has to do is trace her communicator signal," Venus replied, popping open her wrist communicator. "If she's on Earth and the signal's not blocked, he'll find her. Artemis?"

"This better be good," grumbled Artemis over the communicator. "I was sleeping."

"Sleep later, fuzzy butt! We've got an emergency here! Ami's been abducted!"

"Abducted?" gasped Artemis. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm staring at the robot someone left in place of her - - or what's left of it. Get a trace on her communicator."

"On it!" Artemis replied. "Can you put the remains of that android in a safe place? I'd like to look it over."

"Only because you asked nicely," Venus joked. She turned to Sailor Moon. "We'll find her, Sailor Moon. Nobody busts up the Three Musketeers while I'm around." She scowled. "Um, Five Musketeers - - what is a musketeer anyway."

"Don't strain yourself," Mars sneered. She softened as she took Sailor Moon's hands. "If Artemis can't trace her, I'll do a fire reading. We will find her. Don't fold on us." Sailor Moon nodded.

"Venus!" Artemis called back. "I'm not getting anything on the trace. She's either in a shielded place or she's not on the planet."

Everyone felt Sailor Moon tense.

"Or in this time," Venus added. "Which means maybe I should pay a call on Setsuna?"

"Worth a shot. And by the way, if it was a duplicate of Ami, it's an android, not a robot."

"Details, details!"

"I'll come over to the shrine with Luna and look it over."

"Yeah, you just want to grab some snuggle time with your squeeze," Venus needled.

"Focus, Venus," came the acid reply. "Artemis out."

"I'll get on that fire reading," Mars told Sailor Moon and headed for the shrine.

"I'm going to head over to Setsuna's," Venus told them. She turned to Sailor Moon. "We're going to find her." The princess nodded.

As they watched Venus leave, Jupiter felt Sailor Moon's strength wavering again. She began to massage the girl's shoulders.

"I know it's hard to believe it when Blondie says it, but we will find her," Jupiter whispered.

"I trust them," Sailor Moon replied in a small voice. "It's just so hard not to fear the worst. Why would someone take Ami?"

"Maybe to spy on us," Jupiter offered, "although that means they know our secret."

"But who?"

"I don't know. It's not like we've got a magic mirror that can tell us things like that."

At once each senshi looked at the other with growing inspiration.

"But Michiru does!" Sailor Moon gasped.

"I hope they're home," Jupiter grinned. "Give me a minute to tell Mars where we're headed." Jupiter ran off, transforming into Makoto as she did.  
- - - -  
Frustrated, Ami sat at the desk in her prison cube. The walls were too thick to break. She'd even resorted to throwing the chair against the wall, to no effect. There were no seams visible, save for a small door on one wall and an access port a half-meter long and about 25 centimeters high. Since it was next to the desk where the tray well sat, Ami deduced it was where her meals were shoved through. It was too small to get more than a hand through.

Her frustration a thing alive, Ami looked over the cube again.

"There must be something I'm overlooking," she thought. She glanced at the food port again and noticed it was closed over with a hatch on hinges. "Air," she thought.

Quickly her eyes scanned the entire cube. There was no break in any of the walls or floor. The entire cube seemed to be sealed tight.

"If this cube is sealed, how is air getting in?" she wondered. "There must be a hidden vent somewhere."

Up on her feet, Ami looked over the ceiling with intense scrutiny. She dissected everything she saw, looking for the most minute difference. Then she saw it. Pulling the chair over to the far corner, Ami stood up on it and got a close look. There was a vent, camouflaged by being made of the same material the cube was. The mesh on the screen was so fine that it was easy to miss if one wasn't specifically looking for it.

However, the screen covered a vent that was thirty-five centimeters by thirty-five - -  
hardly big enough for even an infant human to pass through.

"I made the vents that small intentionally, Mizuno," she heard Viluy say. Looking down from her perch on the chair, Ami saw her captor paused in the doorway, holding a meal tray,  
looking at her with a smirk of triumph. "Can't have you crawling through the duct system, can we?" She strutted into the room, audible only by the rustle of her knit skirt against her hose and the click of her high heels on the floor. "But congratulations on finding the vent. It is stimulating to see a superior mind at work."

Ami climbed down from the chair and placed it at the desk. She readied herself for more communicating via the computer. Viluy slid the tray through the slot without fear of her prisoner attacking her.

"How do you think Sailor Moon would do in this trap?" Viluy asked. "Do you think she'd be sucking her thumb by now?"

"This incessant need to gloat and belittle ill reflects a superior intellect," Ami typed.

"Oh, touche," smiled Viluy. "You've grown some bite in the last few years. Yes, I suppose it does reflect poorly upon me. It pains me to admit it, but even I'm not completely bereft of these troublesome emotional responses." She flashed Ami a wicked grin. "But I'm still young yet. Watch with me."

Viluy took a few moments to search for the remote. When she remembered she'd smashed it earlier, her face darkened and she walked over to the monitor recessed in the wall. Pressing a stud engaged it. On the monitor was a picture of a well to do man in his fifties. He seemed to be riding in a car with the android broadcasting the picture.

"On the screen is Yukihito Takamoto," Viluy said. "Are you familiar with him?"

"He's Chief Operating Officer of Nippon Central Bank," Ami replied through her computer.

"The very same," Viluy nodded in admiration. "As far as he knows, he's riding with his old friend Shinji Tanaka. Let's watch what transpires."

They turned back to the monitor. The car pulled into a remote area of the city, near a private golf course. Takamoto turned to the driver, puzzled.

With imperceptible speed, a hand lashed out, apparently from the android. Takamoto's head lolled back at an awkward manner, his stunned eyes lifelessly staring up at the roof of the car. Viluy looked at Ami's reaction. She lip read Ami's silent whisper of "That poor man" and smiled to herself.

"Even now my android duplicate is returning to Takamoto's office," Viluy said. "The Tanaka android will dispose of the body in an incinerator I've arranged for. No one will be the wiser except you and I."

"How?" Ami typed distantly.

"Specify," Viluy demanded.

"How could you," Ami struggled to type, "pervert technology like this? I knew you were cold - - but this? It gets more reprehensible every time."

"Your mistake is that you apply social mores to technology and its application," Viluy countered calmly. "The only difference between this and using technology to eradicate a bacterium is the social value placed upon each."

"Cold, soulless logic," she read on Ami's lips.

"Precisely," Viluy replied.

"It isn't something to aspire to," Ami typed.

"That's your opinion," Viluy said haughtily. "And your opinion doesn't carry much weight at the moment. After all, you're the lab rat in the cage, not me." Viluy smiled. "Eat your dinner, lab rat - - or do I have to engage in some Skinner-esque behavior modification?"

Ami glared up at her captor.  
- - - -  
Behind a house in an otherwise quiet neighborhood, a fourteen-year-old boy peered through the gap between the boards of a wooden fence. The youth, a very quiet and ordinary boy, was engaged totally by what he saw. He didn't notice the stress cramping in his knees as he knelt against the fence. The soft give of the dirt next to the fence was dimly noted. His breathing was faint. He acknowledged nothing of the world surrounding him except for what was on the other side of the board fence.

On the other side of the board fence, Setsuna Meioh lay sunning herself in a lawn chair. Her long, luxurious body, covered only for propriety's sake by the nylon wisps of her maroon bikini, relaxed and soaked up the last of the sun's warmth. Her chest rose and fell with a slow,  
rhythmic, almost hypnotic pace. The bright sun gleamed off the lenses of her sunglasses. Her only concession to the world around her was the occasional movement to pick up a cool drink or to rub more oil on her soft, darkening skin.

Kaz Horomi watched spellbound. Females were, at his age, still a mysterious and intimidating breed. They were so different, so unfathomable, and yet so very fascinating. The way you could tell how soft a girl's skin was with your eyes instead of your fingers intrigued him. The way a girl's shoulder curved or her foot arched, the way her hand splayed or the depth of her eyes was confusing to him. And that was with a girl his own age - - to actually be this close to such a stunningly beautiful mature woman was all his fourteen-year-old mind could aspire to. Her long green-black hair astounded him. Her long, elegant legs captivated him. Her face, a unique thing capable of distance and aloofness and at the same time warmth and generosity,  
hypnotized him. And he noticed other characteristics about her, too.

As he stared at her, his heart yearned to be with a woman as perfect as her. But in his head, he knew she was beyond him. She was an adult and a woman and he was fourteen and had nothing to offer her that would entice her to condescend to be with him. He didn't understand females and feared he never would. And he feared a woman such as this would always be beyond him. All he could do was burn her image into his memory and long for her.

A small electronic beep interrupted everything. Setsuna sat up and clicked off the alarm chronometer she wore as a necklace. Though she loved the sun, Setsuna was sensible enough not to stay out in it too long. Gathering her drink and her oil, she casually strolled up to the back porch of the house she lived in and went inside.

Kaz sighed and surrendered his post at the fence. He walked up to the door of his house and found his mother standing in the doorway.

"Were you staring at the neighbor woman again?" she scowled.

Kaz blushed as he grimaced. He was only worshiping at the altar of her perfection. Why did she have to make it sound so reprehensible?

Inside, Setsuna found a surprise waiting for her. She came face to face with Sailor Pluto.

"Forgive me for startling you," Sailor Pluto said gently.

"You are my future self," Setsuna said. It wasn't a question.

"I am," Pluto nodded. She smiled wistfully. "You have been lying in the sun. How I miss that." Setsuna looked at her curiously, but Pluto would say no more.

"Why have you come to me? Is it because whatever powers I am destined to gain in the future have not yet emerged? Do you seek to warn me of a calamity to come?"

"You graze the truth, Setsuna," Pluto replied. "I see things you cannot, things you must not know until they occur. I cannot explain myself, for that would reveal things that would forever bar the future of Crystal Tokyo."

Setsuna studied her future self. She knew what the woman said was so, and yet her human curiosity itched to know what Pluto knew.

"I will say this much," Pluto continued, "for it is crucial to the future of the one we both serve. A - - misfortune has occurred and you will be called upon to stand with your fellow senshi. You must not act."

"Betray my oath to protect the princess?" Setsuna marveled. "How can you, of all people,  
ask me to do this?"

"I ask this because our primary duty IS to protect the future queen," Pluto countered. "But our power is more than courage and a strong weapon. Ours is the power to know when an act will save all that matters most - - and when not acting will." Pluto grasped her past self by the shoulders and their eyes met. "Setsuna, soon you will be called upon to take a course of action. You must not."

"What could have occurred that could have such grave consequences for the future?"  
Setsuna asked, desperate to believe her future self. "I grasp that you cannot reveal my future to me, but please can you not give me something to carry my resolve to act as you ask? Can you tell me nothing?"

Sailor Pluto looked into herself, remembering how she felt this day and through that knowing what she had to reveal.

"The time stream has been muddied," Pluto revealed, "by a traveler. She has gained knowledge of the future that will make her a threat to this present. Should you become involved with her, you will destroy everything I am working desperately to return to us all. Setsuna,  
please believe me. You must not become involved in this. I can say no more. Please let this be enough to convince you."

Setsuna looked at her mirror image. There was a quiet desperation to the woman that made her want to believe. And yet there was a certainty to her, as if she already knew the outcome - - which, if she really was who Setsuna perceived her to be, she would. Perhaps a test.

"Kentaro Yatamami," she whispered. Sailor Pluto smiled with the glow of a memory.

"Our sempai from first level high school," Sailor Pluto replied. "The first boy we loved from afar. We never told him of our feelings, for we feared he would be insulted. And then he was gone, beyond our reach and in the grasp of the fair Akiko Suzuki." She grasped Setsuna's hand. "You will receive another chance at love, Setsuna."

"Very well," Setsuna said. "I shall do as you ask. I only hope, in my ignorance, I do not act incorrectly and cause further damage."

"I have faith in us," Sailor Pluto smiled. Then she grew serious. "Your first test approaches."

The doorbell rang. Setsuna walked to the door and peered out the decorative window in the top.

Minako stood on her front step.

continued in chapter 5 


	5. A Clear Vision Of The Future

BLINDED BY SCIENCE Chapter 5: "A Clear Vision Of The Future"

by Bill K.

The doorbell rang. Setsuna walked to the door and peered out the decorative window in the top.

Minako stood on her front step. Reluctantly Setsuna opened the door. She would have preferred running out the back door and fleeing so as not to refuse the request of a friend. However she was hardly dressed for it, as she still wore the maroon bikini.

"Um," Minako stammered, thrown off by Setsuna's attire. Recovering quickly, she smirked and cocked an eyebrow. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"I was merely sunning myself in the back," Setsuna replied with a smirk of her own.

"Giving the neighbors a thrill, huh?"

"Not to my knowledge," Setsuna said, flushing ever so slightly. "But it is a compliment to be found attractive. How may I assist you?"

"We've got trouble," Minako sobered. "We just found out somebody kidnaped Ami and put a robot in her place."

"Indeed?" gasped Setsuna, genuinely shocked. "When did you find this out?"

"About fifteen minutes ago. Rei sniffed her out. And we can't get a fix on Ami's communicator signal. I added those two things up and got somebody from the future. Any ideas?"

"It is a logical assumption," Setsuna nodded thoughtfully, "and one worth pursuing. Were there any other clues?"

"Not yet," Minako replied. "So - - think you can give us a lift to the future?"

"Any ability to traverse the time stream has not yet developed within me," Setsuna told her. "Those times you have been ferried to the future were by my future self."

"Bummer," scowled Minako. "Can you at least give us a time to look in?"

"I have no way of knowing or sensing that."

Minako sighed in frustration.

"I am sorry," Setsuna offered.

"We can only do what we can do," Minako shrugged. "Hey, maybe you and Rei could get together and between the two of you sniff out something."

"I don't," Setsuna began, turning from the blonde before her. "That would not be a good idea."

"Why not?"

"The time stream is a very delicate thing," Setsuna rationalized. "Rei does not possess the skill to safely navigate it - - and at this stage of my life, neither do I. I-I might do more harm than good."

"But this is Ami we're talking about!" Minako countered. "We just can't abandon her because it might be a risk to go after her!"

"I-I am sorry," Setsuna said. "I wish no harm to come to Ami. I pray that you are able to rescue her. But there can be more at stake here than just the life of one woman, even a woman as important to us as Ami. I dare not take the risk."

"Setsuna!" pleaded Minako.

"No," she replied firmly. "Please go. You are wasting valuable time, time which could be used to find Ami."

Minako scowled. Without another option, she turned and left. Setsuna closed the door behind her. She lingered at the door, in pain, then turned away. Sailor Pluto was waiting for her.

"I am sorry to put you through this, Setsuna," Pluto offered.

Setsuna's eyes began to tear. In response, Pluto gathered her in and hugged her.

"It will work out for the best," Pluto whispered to her. "So long as you stay true to your vow, all will work out in the end."  
- - - -  
The buzzer interrupted Michiru Kaioh's silent reverie. Shutting down the vacuum, the woman turned from cleaning the drapes and headed for the door. Pausing only long enough to brush a lock of green hair from her eyes and peer out the side panel windows, she grasped the knob and opened the door.

"Well this is unexpected," Michiru said, finding Usagi and Makoto on her front step. "But a pleasant surprise nonetheless. Please come in."

As the girls entered, Michiru examined them surreptitiously. Makoto was her usual gruff,  
sullen self. It amazed Michiru just how long some people could carry ill-feelings. Perhaps she needed to do something about it. Then Usagi caught her eye. The girl seemed pensive and under considerable mental stress. That was never a good sign. When the irrepressibly ebullient Usagi Tsukino was quiet and pensive, there was trouble brewing, trouble Michiru knew she wouldn't like.

As the pair took Michiru's invitation to sit down, the artist noticed Makoto glancing around suspiciously.

"You can relax, Makoto. Haruka's not here," Michiru said. "She has a race in Frankfort and will be gone for at least three more days."

She had intended it as a harmless little jab to lighten the mood. But Makoto glared at her and Michiru knew she had struck a nerve again.

"I believe congratulations are in order for you two," Michiru began, taking a different tact. "Didn't you both just graduate high school?"

"Can we just get to the point?" Makoto replied gruffly. "That way, you don't have to keep pretending that you give a damn about us."

Usagi flushed with embarrassment. Even Makoto realized she'd said more than she wanted to, but defiantly stood her ground.

Yes, Michiru was definitely going to have to do something about this.

"Michiru," Usagi began, before Michiru could respond to Makoto, "we have a problem. Ami's missing and I think only you can help us!"

"Ami?" Michiru gasped, genuinely upset. "Of course, Usagi, I'll do anything I can!" Her open anxiety seemed to impress even Makoto. "Tell me exactly what happened."

"Well sometime," Usagi began, "we don't know when - - Ami was replaced by a machine - - a machine that looks just like her! It acted just like her, too! It fooled us all, Michiru - - all except Rei. That's how we found out!"

"Replaced by a-a mechanized duplicate?" Michiru marveled.

"And we thought you might be able to use your mirror to find out where she is," Makoto said, a hint of suspicion still in her voice, "or at least who has her."

"Of course," Michiru nodded, numbed by the startling revelation. "Just let me transform." Her henshin stick came out. "Neptune Planet Power Make Up!"

Within moments, the imposing Sailor Neptune stood before them. Without another word to them, she summoned the Deep Aqua Mirror. Usagi and Makoto watched as Sailor Neptune slipped into a light trance while holding the mirror up to her face. She seemed oblivious to everything around her. Curiously, the two girls peeked over her shoulder. They could see nothing but Neptune's reflection in the glass. However, Makoto noted that Neptune seemed to be viewing something. The expression on her face hinted that she saw something they could not.

Finally Neptune's shoulders slumped with fatigue. The hand mirror fell to her side and her head drooped as she refocused on reality.

"Michiru?" Usagi whispered desperately, her hands going up to Neptune's shoulders. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Neptune replied, smiling sheepishly. "Sometimes the mirror takes a little out of me. I appreciate your concern, Usagi."

"Did you see anything?" Makoto asked.

"Yes," Neptune whispered breathlessly. "Ami is alive. She's being held in a small cube about the size of a bathroom with clear walls, probably some sort of plastic. The cube is in a room with bare, white walls. It's very well lit." Neptune's brow furrowed. "She has some sort of electronic band around her throat. I don't know if it's some sort of restraint or some means of tracking her."

"Do you know where she is?" Usagi asked.

"Beyond that, no. It seems like she's in Tokyo, but I can't pinpoint where."

Usagi's hopes visibly sank. Makoto instantly began massaging her shoulders.

"Come on, hon'," Makoto said. "We know she's still alive and we're that much closer to her. Maybe Rei or Minako found more."

Usagi nodded her head and started to go. Absently she stopped and turned back to Neptune.

"Where are my manners?" she grimaced. "Thank you for your help, Sailor Neptune."

Neptune reverted back to Michiru. "It was nothing at all. Usagi, may I come with you? I'd like to do more to help. Ami's a good friend and a valuable member of this team - - possibly more valuable than I am. Maybe my help can allow us to find her that much faster."

"We'd love to have you, Michiru," Usagi beamed. And once again, Michiru found that making this girl smile inspired the warmest feeling in her.

"There's one other thing I think needs to be said," Michiru announced. She turned to Makoto. "I realize Haruka and I got off on the wrong foot with you. We did what we thought was best given the situation, but clearly we didn't handle things with as much skill as I believe we're capable of. The fact that we've allowed this to fester over the years is as much our fault as anyone's. Makoto, please accept my apology for all that we've done to offend you over the last three years."

And Michiru bowed at the waist to her. Usagi was in shock, but it was nothing compared to the astonishment Makoto felt. Suddenly any ability she had to articulate words left her. But Michiru didn't wait for an acceptance of her apology. She straightened up, walked over to a bureau and took out her purse.

"Shall we go?" Michiru asked.

"Um, sure," Makoto replied softly, seeing the green-haired artist in an entirely new light.  
- - - -  
Viluy returned for Ami's empty tray. Ami immediately began typing.

"What was in the food?" she typed and the voice synthesizer recreated. "A mind control drug?"

Viluy smothered a laugh.

"Now, Mizuno, if I wanted to introduce a mind control agent into your body, it would be much easier to release it in gaseous form through the ventilation port, wouldn't it?" And she gave Ami that superior look she had.

"Then why am I still alive?"

"You stimulate me," Viluy replied.

"How soon are you going to send out another duplicate?" Ami typed.

"Soon. I have to download the cerebral synapse patterns first. Otherwise my android wouldn't act exactly like the original, would it?"

"How do you manage to copy the subject's thought patterns so exactly?" Ami posed. "Is it your nano-bot technology at work?"

"Very good, Mizuno!" Viluy replied, genuinely pleased. "Your intuition hasn't dulled a bit. Let me tell you how it's done. I managed to modify my nano-bot in the future with the improved microcircuit technology of the era. The nano-bot is injected directly into the central nervous system of the subject as a high-speed projectile. At most the subject dismisses the momentary pain as an insect bite."

Ami listened with rapt attention.

"The nano-bot sends a small tracer electrical current through the nervous system,  
recording the current's pathways through the brain and transmitting those recordings to me. In seconds the entire neural network of the subject's brain is recorded in my hard drive. The nano-bot is then destroyed by the subject's white blood cells, but it's done its job. I have a pattern to program my android with, duplicating the subject's brain as well as I can duplicate the subject's body."

The beep of Viluy's chronometer drew her attention.

"The download should be finishing up," Viluy announced. "Time to meet my latest recruit."

Ami watched Viluy strut off. She felt confident that the woman's arrogance would be her downfall. But how soon? And what could Ami do to hasten that downfall? All she had to work with were plastic furniture and a computerized vocal synthesizer with the four key words she needed blocked out.

Or were they? Seized with an idea, Ami began typing.

"Merc," the synthesizer replied.

"Good," Ami thought. "She programmed slang into the vocabulary. Very thorough,  
Viluy - - how typical of you. I wonder if you included proper names, too."

Ami typed another word.

"Curie," the synthesizer responded.

Ami smiled triumphantly.  
- - - -  
Artemis and Luna eyed the jumble of scorched and melted circuitry and synthetic flesh shoved off in the corner of the room. Rei had hidden the remains of the Ami android in the room so her grandfather wouldn't spot it. She'd just finished when the cats arrived. Ushering them inside, Rei brusquely departed to start her fire reading.

Though she wouldn't admit it to Artemis, the sight of the android's remains put Luna's fur on edge. There was something unearthly about the android scrap to begin with. To top it all,  
though, part of Ami's replicated face clung to the android's skull.

That made looking at it quite unnerving.

She was brought out of her trance by her partner's back flip. The white cat's laptop computer appeared, as well as a pair of sensory goggles. Once armed, Artemis approached the heap.

"Do be careful, Artemis," Luna warned anxiously.

"Didn't know you cared," Artemis smirked as he studied the machine parts.

"Don't get a swelled head over it," Luna scowled.

"Relax, Luna. I'm getting zero energy output from this thing. It's just a pile of inert metal and foam plastic now." He crossed around to the back. "I wish Mars hadn't done such a good job toasting this thing."

"No doubt she felt it was a threat to Sailor Moon."

"No doubt. Funny how strong a reaction that drew out of her."

"Implying what?" demanded the black cat.

"Nothing," Artemis smirked knowingly. "From what little intact circuitry I can scan, this is mighty sophisticated technology."

"More sophisticated than currently possible?"

"Yeah," Artemis commented, then turned to Luna, "but then I thought some of the stuff Tomoe was throwing at us was too sophisticated for Earth normal, too."

"Well, he did have alien help," Luna replied. She looked up. "Artemis, does this mean this could be alien technology?"

"Not unless their planet has the same mineral make up ours has," the white cat said,  
looking at his readouts. "My scan is showing chemical compositions and mineral alloys all native to Earth. You'd think a different planet would have something different about it." The cat frowned again. "Oh, how I wish I could download something from this central processing core!"

"Well, there's no sense crying over spilled milk, Artemis," Luna advised him. "You'll just have to glean what you can from this wreckage and put the rest of the puzzle together yourself."

"Wish Ami was here to trade theories with," Artemis muttered.

Luna watched over Artemis as he recorded his scan readings and tried to extrapolate from them. It was easy to see now why she was attracted to him when he was like this. He was so commanding in this state, so brilliant that a feline couldn't help but fall in line behind him. If only he were like this all the time, he might be her dream lover. But for every moment of brilliance and charisma he demonstrated in his life, he always seemed to demonstrate at least one corresponding act of laziness or immaturity. It was so frustrating.

"Artemis?" Luna asked, hoping to keep his brilliant streak going, "could the technology capable of this - - device - - be capable of blocking the senshi communicator signal?"

"I'd like to think not," Artemis said distantly as he paw-typed a question into his computer. "We're already at a technological disadvantage just from the presence of this android. We don't need more of a handicap."

The door slid open. The cats looked and saw Usagi, Makoto and Michiru enter. Michiru's eyes popped upon seeing the android, but she quickly fell back behind her controlled expression.

"You've brought Michiru into the case. Good thinking, girls," Luna said.

"And she was able to get some information for us with her mirror!" Usagi reported happily. "Ami's alive, Luna!"

"Jolly good news indeed," Luna replied. "Were you able to locate her?"

"Not specifically," Michiru told her. "She's being held prisoner in a plastic detention cell,  
but I couldn't see where."

"You two find anything?" Makoto asked.

"Just that this robot doesn't belong to the technology of this age," Luna answered.

"Android," Artemis corrected. "This ANDROID doesn't belong to the technology of this age." Luna turned and scowled at him. "Wait a minute. I've been looking at this problem based on assumptions."

"You've thought of something?" Luna asked and the others leaned forward expectantly.

"I'm assuming the android is from this time period," Artemis explained. "What if it's from the future? This construction might be common science in the future. And maybe that's why I couldn't lock onto Ami's communicator signal - - because she's not here. She's in some future time!"

"No," Michiru replied. Artemis looked at her, a silent challenge on his face. "I'm sorry to disagree with you. The android may be from the future, but when I was looking at Ami in my mirror, I could sense she was in Tokyo."

"Yeah," Minako said, entering dramatically, "but Tokyo now or Tokyo to come?"

"And the Oscar goes to . . ." muttered Artemis.

"Hey, Fuzzy, you have to take your grand entrances when they come," Minako shot back.

"What led you to that conclusion?" Michiru asked.

"A lifetime of pursuing the spotlight," Minako shrugged.

Makoto rolled her eyes, calmly walked over and smacked the back of Minako's head.

"THAT AMI'S IN THE FUTURE, genius!" Makoto said.

"Oh, that," Minako said, rubbing the back of her head. "Put the ideas Artemis had together with the vibes I got from Setsuna and that's the conclusion I get. Setsuna was pretty tight-lipped when I talked to her and didn't want anything to do with this. Now usually when Setsuna clams up, it's got something to do with the future. I think that's where we'll find Ami. I said that before and I'm even more convinced I'm right now."

"But where?" Usagi asked. "How far in the future?"

Minako shrugged helplessly.

"If we only knew who was behind this?" Luna speculated. "If we knew that, it might lead us to where, or in this case, when she is. There's no clue in the wreckage at all, Artemis?"

"No. There might have been some clues in the central processing core, but it's just a hunk of silicon now."

At that moment, Rei entered the room. Her face was flushed and glistening with sweat as it usually was after a fire reading. Instantly Usagi got a glass of water and gave it to the miko. She took it gratefully.

"Anything?" Minako asked.

"I got a vision," Rei said, her brow furrowed and her tone hushed, "but I'm having trouble believing it."

"What did you see?" Usagi asked.

"I saw - - Viluy," Rei said.

"Viluy?" Makoto gasped.

"Little Miss Snowflake from the Witches 5?" Minako added incredulously.

"Yes," Rei nodded. "And my visions aren't wrong. Viluy's the one who kidnaped Ami."

continued in Chapter 6 


	6. Battle Of Wits

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 6: "Battle Of Wits"

by Bill K.

"Viluy? But didn't she get eaten up by those thingy-bots of hers?" Usagi asked.

"That's what appeared to happen," Michiru nodded. "Clearly from Rei's vision we were mistaken to assume that."

"And if Viluy survived, how many of the other Witches' Five survived?" Makoto proposed. "Maybe Tomoe and that Kaolininte witch are still around, too."

Sensing her sudden distress, Rei came over to Usagi. Usagi had her right hand covering her left fist and both were pressed to her lips. The girl seemed suddenly pale.

"Usagi?" Rei asked, her hands on the girl's shoulders.

Usagi shook her head. "Just - - bad memories. Kaolinite is dead. I watched Mistress 9 destroy her."

"I saw it, too," Michiru added. "And Dr. Tomoe died at the rest home over two years ago,  
during Galaxia's rampage."

"Yeah, and we all watched Mimet get it," Minako said. "And Cyprine and Pikurl killed each other."

"And I saw Tellu be killed by that plant," Usagi added. "But we saw it happen to Viluy,  
too!"

"But in each of the other cases there was a body," Minako told her. "I'm not going to say for certain that someone like Eudial is gone because I haven't seen a body. Same with Viluy; but the others are gone."

"Was Viluy capable of building a mechanical person that was that good?" Makoto asked. "I know she was smart."

"Nobody living in this era could construct an android this sophisticated," Artemis stated firmly. "I'd stake my reputation on it."

"That's not much of a bet," murmured Minako. Artemis shot her a glare.

"OK, so that makes the important questions these: How did Viluy get to the future to get this technology; How did she make it back; and did she maroon Ami in a future time or does she have some sort of futuristic shield that blocks the communicator trace?" Rei asked.

The silence in the room was not encouraging.

"Well this isn't accomplishing anything," Michiru said. She turned and headed for the door.

"Sorry if we bored you," Makoto grumbled.

"I'm heading for the crater that used to be Infinity Academy," Michiru replied in a controlled tone. "I don't know what, if anything, I'll find there, but I don't know anyplace else to start looking. If you'd like to join me, feel free. If you have some other place you'd prefer to start looking, I wish you a successful hunt."

Without waiting for a response, Michiru continued on for the door.

"I'll come with you," Minako said, heading for the door, too. "You know the old saying:  
Four eyes are better than two."

Rei grimaced, but refrained from saying anything. As they were leaving, Rei's grandfather peeked into the door. Immediately his eyes latched on Michiru.

"Ah, I've never seen you here before!" the old man smiled and blocked Michiru's path, bowing deeply. "Welcome, pretty lady, to the Hikawa Shrine. Was there anything I could do for you?"

"No, Sensei," Michiru replied in a tone that was faintly amused by the stubby priest, "I was just visiting your granddaughter."

"Another one of Rei's friends, huh," he smiled. "That girl sure can pick them lovely."

"Oh, I can see you're a dangerous one," Michiru responded playfully.

"Nah, I'm a pussycat," Grandpa grinned. "You wouldn't be interested in becoming a shrine maiden, would you?"

"GRAMPA!" fumed Rei.

"Oh, all right," the old man scowled. Michiru exited, twittering her amusement. As Minako passed, she leaned in close to him.

"You knew she was a lesbian, didn't you?" she whispered devilishly to him.

Grandpa's face fell. "What a loss to men," he clucked.

"Did you want something other than to ogle my friends?" Rei demanded.

"Oh, yes. Ami's mother is on the phone for her. Is she here?"

Usagi, Rei and Makoto exchanged nervous looks.

"Um, no, Grampa, she isn't," Rei began. "Tell her . . ."

"Tell her I'll be over," Usagi chimed in gravely. "Tell her - - I'll explain everything."

"Usagi?" Rei inquired.

"I should do it," Usagi replied.  
- - - -  
With intense concentration, more so than usual, Ami summoned her henshin stick. She didn't know why it was harder to summon. Perhaps the band around her throat was affecting more than just her vocal cords. Perhaps it was something else. When it was finally in her hand, though, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she heard the pneumatic puff of the door. In the seconds it took for Viluy to enter the room and fix her gaze on her prisoner, Ami weighed her options. She didn't want to send the henshin stick back into the limbo it came from. But there were no hiding places for it. She was in a clear plastic room stripped down to bra and panties. Knowing she couldn't afford Viluy seeing it, Ami sent it back where it came from.

"You look distressed, Mizuno," Viluy commented. She still wore the white lab coat, but had changed clothes underneath to a white button front blouse and a close-fitting black knee length skirt. "Did another one of your escape plans get trumped?"

"You're gloating again," Ami typed.

"Ah, where would I be without you to put me in my place?" Viluy smiled. "Perhaps I'm surrendering to sentimentality again, but I am enjoying these little jousts between us more and more. I'm almost regretting how you're destined to end up."

"You don't have to do it," the synthesizer said.

"Ultimately I would have to, simply because you're sure to remain intractable concerning your allegiance to Sailor Moon." Viluy pressed a hand up against the vinyl partition. "Is there any hope? Does the possibility exist that you could embrace my way of thinking, even moderately?"

"Do you want the truth?" Ami typed.

"Always, Mizuno. Never think for one moment that you have to lie to spare my feelings. I like to think I'm above petty vengeance."

"No."

Viluy looked down, clearly disappointed.

"Just as I predicted," she whispered. "I hoped I'd be wrong for once."

Straightening up, Viluy turned and engaged the video monitor.

"You've duplicated someone else?" the synthesizer asked.

"Yes," Viluy replied. On the monitor was a man in his early sixties looking in a mirror as he straightened his tie. "This is the replacement for Jurota Kawakami, president of Golden Fortress Heavy Industries. Kawakami-san has already been disposed of. I spared you the gory details due to your sensitive nature."

"You need Golden Fortress to mass produce the androids?" Ami typed.

"Of course - - it's far too slow a process to produce them by hand and I have an army to raise. There's still work to be done, Mizuno. But once everything is in place, Japan will be overrun before it even realizes what happened to it. And from there, armies of androids will fan out until all resistance is crushed." Viluy grew solemn. "I will not see my dream come to fruition. Despite my skill and knowledge, I will not survive to see the end. I know when I'm destined to die, Mizuno. That was on the playback records, too. I won't see my dream become a reality."

"Then why do it?" Ami typed.

"Because logic and intellectual superiority is the natural order of things," Viluy replied. "Whether in humans or androids or a combination of both, that must become the way of things if this planet is to survive. That's a legacy I must leave to posterity, whether I'm able to see it happen or not. I owe it to the future."

Viluy returned to the video monitor. Ami put her head in her hands.  
- - - -  
"You didn't have to come with me," Usagi said to Makoto as they rode up the apartment building elevator to the penthouse.

"This is going to be hard enough," Makoto replied. "Having a little support will help you get through it." She shrugged. "Besides I'm not doing anything tonight. And it's not like I've got any parents worrying about where I am."

Usagi glanced over sympathetically. She reached out and squeezed her friend's hand.

The elevator opened and the two girls stepped out. There was only one door, as there was only one penthouse in this building. They walked toward it.

"I never get used to how swank this place is. Ami's mom must make a ton of money," Makoto mused.

"I wonder if Mamo-chan and I will be living in a place like this in twenty years," Usagi said, "once he's a successful doctor."

"Is he going to continue with medical school?" Makoto asked.

"Sure. Why not?"

"Well, you two are getting married."

"So?"

"And you're going to art school, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So who's going to earn the paycheck?" Makoto asked.

She glanced over at Usagi. Obviously it was the first time the girl had considered that. Makoto allowed herself a knowing smirk.

They arrived at the Mizuno front door. Makoto pushed the buzzer. Seconds later Ami's mother opened the door.

"Has something happened to Ami?" the woman asked, directly and with a touch of frantic just under the surface.

"W-what makes you think that?" Usagi replied, intimidated by the woman. Makoto rolled her eyes. She knew you didn't get things past Ami's mother for very long. The woman was too sharp.

"Come in," Mrs. Mizuno said, realizing her manner was intimidating her guests. "I could tell by what the priest told me, Usagi. There wasn't much else I could infer from it." They sat down, Dr. Mizuno staring intently at Usagi. "Please be honest with me. Is this some sort of Sailor thing? Has something happened to Ami?"

"Yes," Usagi admitted. Makoto was about to speak for her, but pulled back when she heard Usagi speak. Some admiration for her friend began to grow. "We think - - no, we know she's been kidnaped."

"By whom?"

"An old enemy of ours. We think it happened yesterday or last night, but it could have been earlier."

"That's not possible," Dr. Mizuno interjected. "I saw Ami at breakfast just this morning. So did her father."

"That wasn't her," Makoto spoke up. She found her voice suddenly as timid as Usagi's. "When she was kidnaped, the enemy put a duplicate in her place. I think Artemis called them androids?"

"T-that was an-an android?" Dr. Mizuno gasped in shock. The girls feared she was on the verge of collapse. "But - - it was just like her! I didn't - - I didn't know!" She shook her head numbly. "I'm her mother. I should have known it wasn't her."

"We'll get her back, Mrs. Mizuno!" Usagi sobbed, kneeling before the older woman and grasping her by her shoulders. "I promise you, we'll get her back! She's still alive! We know that for a fact!"

Ami's mother sat there for a few seconds trying to digest this horrible revelation. Usagi and Makoto looked on helplessly.

"Was it really Ami," Dr. Mizuno whispered, "at graduation?"

"We're pretty sure it was," Makoto assured her.

"Thank goodness for that," the woman said.

"Mrs. Mizuno," Usagi said, her eyes bubbling over with tears, "we're sorry about this."

Dr. Mizuno nodded. "I understand. She's doing this to achieve a greater good. She knew there were risks." Summoning all her strength, Dr. Mizuno forced a timid smile onto her face and patted Usagi's arm. "Do what you have to do, Usagi. I'll wait for her." The woman took a deep breath. "Please excuse me. I have to tell Ami's father."

"Of course," Makoto said while Usagi nodded. The girls quickly headed for the door and out.

Out in the hall Makoto glanced over at Usagi. The girl was awash with torment.

"Mako-chan," Usagi whimpered, "I pray my parents never have to go through that."

Makoto draped an arm around Usagi and pulled her close.  
- - - -  
"What are we looking for?" Sailor Venus asked as the pair edged their way around the lip of the Infinity Academy crater.

Three years after it had been consumed by the collision of energies between Pharaoh 90 and Sailor Saturn, it still sat like an open wound near the bay. For three years the Tokyo government had tried to hack through the red tape woven by Dr. Tomoe to protect ownership of the land so they could address the crater. Three years later it remained, the rotting corpse of the Deathbusters and their evil scheme.

"Some sign of life to indicate Viluy is here," Sailor Neptune replied as she surveyed the ground, "or was here recently."

"I found a bottle cap," Venus remarked. Neptune looked over to her.

"Does it have Viluy's name on it?" Neptune asked, eyebrow arched.

"No," Venus replied blankly.

"Then throw it back," Neptune said with measured patience.

Venus sighed and began looking around again.

"Can't you use your mirror or something to find out if she's been here?" Venus asked.

"I suppose I could," Neptune answered. "I can't guarantee the results." She summoned the Deep Aqua Mirror and gazed into it while Venus continued to look around.

"Hey, you're close with Setsuna," Venus murmured as she scanned the ground with her eyes. "Why do you think she doesn't want to get involved in this?"

"I couldn't say," Neptune replied distantly, focused on the mirror. "I'm sure she has a good reason."

"But this is Ami! Senshi are supposed to have each others' backs no matter what."

"Setsuna knows what she's doing. I trust her to know the best course, even if I can't see why she does something."

"Well she could at least tell us."

"I'm sure she has a good reason," Neptune murmured, then came out of her trance. "Although I wouldn't presume to speak for her."

"No, just Haruka," Venus smirked.

"Only when she's not capable of it herself," Neptune added, smiling at a private joke. Venus gave her a curious look. "There's no point in looking here any longer. Viluy hasn't been here since before the academy was consumed."

"You're sure?" Venus posed.

"I can corroborate it."

Neptune turned her head slightly so her right ear was pointed out to the waters of the bay. She hesitated for a few moments, listening to something only she heard. Venus looked at her even more curiously.

"The sea confirms it," Neptune said.

"You can talk to the sea?" Venus asked.

"No. The water knows what I want and it tells me."

"What did it say - - glub glub?"

"No," Neptune smiled maliciously. "We've gone way beyond the formal stage."

With that, Neptune turned and headed back up to the surface. Venus stared after her, then shook her head.

"And Rei thinks I'M weird," Venus grumbled.  
- - - -  
As Ami sat in her cubicle, she watched Viluy pace. All the while she wished Viluy would leave and give her a chance to test her latest theory of escape. But the woman lingered. She seemed reluctant to leave Ami. Did she suspect something? Viluy was certainly bright enough to interpret a single clue into suspicion.

Or was it something else? She didn't seem suspicious. It was almost like she wanted Ami for company.

"So tell me, Mizuno," Viluy began, trying to affect a tone that wasn't haughty. "How have you fared in the last three years? Have you graduated already?"

"Just this week," Ami replied on her computer keyboard.

"You didn't take accelerated graduation?"

"I could have. I wanted to stay with my friends."

"Didn't that retard your intellectual growth?"

"I studied on my own. I've completed nearly half of a college freshman course of study, except for the tests and the papers."

"Sometimes you so completely astound me," Viluy replied, shaking her head. "So what college were you off to?"

"Oxford."

"Interesting choice. Won't that separate you from your 'dear friends'?"

"For a time. Sometimes sacrifices must be made."

"Just so," Viluy nodded. "You see, you're not completely hopeless." Her high heels clicked on the floor as she began pacing again. "Any romantic entanglements?"

"Why do you care?" Ami typed.

"Everything about you interests me," Viluy smiled. "Let's just say I'm interested in how your evolution compares to mine." The woman ambled back to the cell looking smug. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

Ami flushed. "There have been a few." She couldn't understand why she confessed that.

"Were any of them your intellectual equal?" Viluy asked. "Or did you succumb to a momentary attraction to a handsome neanderthal?"

"I consider two of them my intellectual equal," Ami typed furiously, "for what little that matters."

"And?" Viluy asked, genuinely interested.

"Circumstances," Ami typed haltingly, "prevented anything meaningful." She looked up and caught sympathy in Viluy's expression. That puzzled her. Viluy instantly slid behind a mask of disdain. "And you?"

"I couldn't love anyone who was my intellectual inferior," Viluy replied. Ami considered that an interesting choice of words.

"You didn't succumb to a momentary attraction to a handsome neanderthal?" Ami typed.

Viluy's mouth hardened. "Men aren't worth the trouble," she replied.

Ami looked at her, looked with a gaze that seemed to dissect her. Viluy instantly became uncomfortable. Her expression hardened.

"Enjoy your time, lab rat," she sneered. "I have work to do." With that Viluy stalked out.

The moment she was gone, Ami summoned her henshin stick. As she waited for it to appear, though, part of her mind mulled over the last exchange with Viluy.

continued in Chapter 7


	7. Future Shock

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 7: "Future Shock"

by Bill K.

Usagi and Makoto ambled toward the Tsukino residence. Makoto had her arm around Usagi for moral support as they slowly walked down the street. The sun had set in the west and the light of this terrible day was quickly fading.

"I feel like I should be doing something," Usagi moaned. "How can I just go home and sleep while Ami's out there alone and friendless in the hands of Viluy?"

"What can you do?" Makoto shrugged. "Worrying's not going to help. The others are doing what they can to find her."

"But I should be doing something." Usagi wiped her eye with her finger. "If I wasn't so stupid and helpless, I could be doing something, too."

"We each do what we do best," Makoto whispered, for emotion had robbed her temporarily of her voice. "This is just as hard for me as it is for you. Losing Ami would be like losing a sister to me - - and I've lost enough family. But I'm just like you. I'm no good with the scientific stuff. Point me in the direction of someone who needs to be hit and I'm your girl. But until Artemis or Minako or Rei or somebody comes up with somebody to hit, I'm useless."

Usagi looked up at her friend sympathetically. Makoto grinned back.

"All we can do is wait for them," Makoto told her. "The minute they point, we need to be ready to act. Until then, we can only wait."

"OK," Usagi whispered. Makoto watched her walk up to her front door, then headed for her apartment. Usagi entered and no sooner had her shoes off then her mother came rushing up.

"There you are!" Ikuko gasped. "How long does it take to shop for a wedding gown? I've been frantic with worry!"

"Did I forget to call?" Usagi asked, stricken by her mother's concern. "I'm sorry, Mom. It's just - - something came up."

"Did it spoil your dinner?" scowled Ikuko.

"Not that! Something's happened to Ami!"

"Ami?" Ikuko gasped.

"Not so loud. It's Sailor business."

"Oh," Ikuko said numbly. "Is she all right?"

"I hope so," Usagi said. "Mom, I may need to go out later on short notice."

"I'll cover for you," Ikuko smiled.

"Is Daddy home?"

"Yes. Your father's in his den talking with Mamoru."

"Mamo-chan?" Usagi cried with alarm. "They're alone? Together?"

"Usagi," Ikuko began to comfort her.

"Daddy'll kill him!" Usagi squealed and frantically tore for the den. She burst through the door without knocking. "DADDY, PLEASE DON'T . . .!"

Kenji and Mamoru looked up at her with confusion. Each man was sitting in a chair. There was no blood. There were no bruised fists or missing limbs. Usagi looked around, confused by the lack of mayhem.

"Princess?" Kenji asked.

"Um," Usagi started to say, then trailed off. "Is, um, everything all right?"

Mamoru tried to stifle a laugh. Even Kenji saw the humor in the situation.

"Don't worry, Princess, I wasn't going to kill him," Kenji smiled. "Mamoru and I were just - - discussing your future."

"About that," Usagi said, her gaze falling to the floor. "Mamo-chan, please don't give up your medical studies. I don't want you to do that. I want you to become a wonderful doctor."

"You see, Mamoru, it's two against one now," Kenji grinned. "I've been trying to convince him of the same thing."

"But Usako, I don't want to deprive you of your art studies," Mamoru told her. "I don't want you to have to give up your dream just to get a job to support me. I wouldn't feel right."

"I've got to side with him there, Princess," Kenji said. "I've seen how happy you are when you draw. I know you can be successful at it. But the longer you wait, the further off that success might be."

"Then there's only one thing to do," Usagi said with a sadness that threatened to crush her very being. "We can't get married, Mamo-chan - - not until one of us graduates and is successful." A tear trickled down her cheek. Mamoru looked at her like she'd just carved his heart out with a knife.

"No, there's another way," Kenji said. "I could pay your expenses until one of you can establish a career."

"Daddy!" Usagi squealed joyously.

"Just a minute, Sir," Mamoru interrupted. "I appreciate the offer and the good will behind it, but I'm not a charity case." Usagi stared at him impatiently.

"I don't look at it as charity, Mamoru," Kenji replied, surprised by his reaction. "I look at it as a gift. I'm in a giving mood. I'm already giving you my most prized possession - - the money hardly matters as much."

"Yes, Mamo-chan, it's a gift!" Usagi added.

"It's too much, Sir," Mamoru replied, trying to be diplomatic. "I couldn't."

"All right then, if it's that important to you, don't consider it a gift," Kenji said. "Consider it a loan. Keep track of every yen and pay me back when you're able - - with interest if your pride demands it."

"You'd charge your own daughter interest?" Usagi howled.

"Usako!" scowled Mamoru. "Sir . . ."

"Mamoru, it's hard enough for me coming to terms with the fact that my little girl loves another man besides me. Please don't make this any harder. Your first concern should be with making her happy, not soothing your pride. Take the loan and make her happy."

Mamoru dropped his head. "I guess I am being a little stubborn, huh? I just - - don't like being obligated to people. I suppose your way is the best way." He held his hand out to Kenji. "Thank you for all your help."

Kenji grasped the hand. "Make my daughter happy. That's all I ask."

"I'll do my very best, sir," Mamoru said.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Usagi cried. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she wrapped her arms around the necks of the two men and pulled them both close.  
- - - -  
The priest peeked into the room where Rei kept her fire pit. The fire in the pit was blazing. Rei, however, was slumped to the side of it. An expression of infinite sadness came over his pumpkin-like face. The old man turned from the scene and disappeared down the hall.

Moments later he returned carrying a bucket of water in one hand and a cup in the other. He sat the bucket down near the fire, then scooped up a cup of water. Kneeling down beside his granddaughter, the priest rolled her head into his lap and began dabbing cooling water onto her feverish brow. When Rei finally began to stir, he took up the cup and held it to her lips.

"G-Grampa?" Rei whispered. She was disoriented and her voice was faint. "What . . .?"

"Drink first," he advised her gently. Tilting the cup to her lips, he fed her a few sips of water, then eased it away. "You can't force the fire to tell you what it doesn't know. All you do is succumb to the heat."

"Did I faint?" she whispered distantly.

"Yes," he said, stroking her forehead with wet fingers. "And your fire was too high. You only succeeded in hurting yourself, not bending the kami to your will."

"It," she said, burning now with shame, "it was important."

"It usually is," he replied knowingly.

Rei sat up and turned to him, her eyes wide with shock.

"You know," she said.

"I know a lot of things," her grandfather smiled. "You get to be my age, you can't help it."

"Grampa," she said sharply, "who always demanded honesty from me?"

"Some old fool who isn't as wise as he pretends to be," the old man replied.

"Grampa," Rei glared.

"All right. Yes, I know you're Sailor Mars. I've known it for a while. That's the problem with having the sight - - even what little sight I have - - you can't turn it off."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you would have told me when you wanted me to know," he told her. "Because you're practically an adult now and you had to be an adult far faster than you should have, so you knew what you were doing. And you had a reason for not wanting me to know and it was up to me to respect that reason." He looked down, tortured it seemed by memories of his own. "And I've always known that your power gave you added responsibilities in this world. If you were burdened by worrying about how I might react because I knew you had a higher calling in life, you might not be as effective. It was better for all that you thought I was - - ignorant of things."

Rei and her grandfather stared at each other, their deepest feelings laid bare before the other.

"That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard," she smirked, giving him an out.

"Maybe, but you have to admit it sounded beautiful," he volleyed. Each one was allowed to retreat behind his or her protective facade again. The priest got up and doused the fire with the remaining water.

"Guess it's time to rest, huh?" Rei asked.

"You've done all you can for tonight. Go to bed. Maybe the truth you seek is trying to reach you through your dreams, not the fires. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner you'll find out."

"Right, Grampa," Rei smiled, picking herself up off the floor.

"By the way, did you ever locate your friend Ami?"

Rei said nothing. Her look communicated it all.

"I see," the priest murmured. "I'll say a prayer for her"  
- - - -  
The shuffle of sandals on the floor outside their room caused Luna to stir from her slumber. She looked up and realized it was the shrine's priest walking the halls. Her head moved around the room to check on Artemis, because if the priest came in and found Artemis still on his computer, Rei would have a lot of explaining to do.

She found him hip deep in the head of the android.

"Artemis, are you still puttering about with that infernal machine?" Luna hissed. "It's nearly dawn!"

"HMM?" Artemis called out from the metal housing.

"Quietly, imbecile, or the priest will hear us!" Luna snapped. She strolled over to a spot about five feet from the android so Artemis wouldn't have to shout. She'd get closer, but she still didn't trust the thing. "What are you doing in there?"

"This android was broadcasting low-band video and audio signals back to whoever made it," Artemis said, poking his head out of the housing.

"Whomever," Luna corrected him. "I thought you said it was inert."

"It is. It was broadcasting while it was functioning. Thing is," and the white cat tugged out a snarl of circuitry between his paws, "I might be able to hook this up to my computer and get a carrier signal going. Once I get that, I should be able to trace it to the receiver that's getting the signal."

"Excellent work, Artemis!" Luna praised him.

"Don't jump for joy yet," the white cat told her as he spliced the circuit into a jack and plugged the jack into his computer. "I have to get a carrier wave established first. I'm assuming its not damaged by the fire and there aren't any anti-pirate booby-traps in here."

"That said, it's an excellent piece of detective work." Luna leaned over and tenderly licked his whiskers. "You've earned that."

"Hey," Artemis grinned, momentarily thrown off balance. "Um, thanks."

Luna smiled as Artemis went back to work. It almost seemed like he was blushing. The black cat suddenly felt warm.

"I must find a way to put my fears aside and marry that cat," Luna thought.

"It's looking good," Artemis nodded, absorbed by his screen. "I've got a signal and it's broadcasting out."

"Jolly good!" Luna smiled.

"Now if I can get a triangulation before Viluy realizes a signal is coming in, we'll have a place to start looking."

"What if your signal is detected?"

"It could tip Viluy off that I'm trying to trace her. She's smart enough to notice if she's looking for it or has some sort of detector warning. But it's a chance we have to take. I don't have any other way of tracking Ami if this flops."

The white cat studied the computer screen for several tense moments. Luna watched him the entire time, hoping with all her being that he would succeed, for his sake as much as for Ami's.

"Got it!" Artemis exclaimed. "Get the senshi, Luna. We need to move fast!"

"Right!" Luna produced her senshi communicator. "Usagi? Come in, Usagi." She waited a few moments. "COME IN, USAGI!"

"Mmmf! 'm here, Luna," Usagi replied in a groggy voice.

"We've had a breakthrough. You need to come immediately."

"You've found Ami?" Usagi mumbled. "I'll be there as fast as I can!" She stifled a yawn and disconnected.

"I would have thought something like this would have awakened her a little faster"  
Artemis commented sourly.

"Actually that was quite fast for her," Luna grinned. "Normally it takes me three times as long to wake her." Luna changed the frequency to Minako's setting.  
- - - -  
By experimentation, Ami found that by typing two words in succession, the vocal synthesizer would pronounce them in close enough proximity to sound like a single word.

"Merc Curie," Ami typed and the synthesizer dutifully repeated.

Ami typed again.

"Crystal," the synthesizer said. Viluy obviously hadn't known about her new power phrase and that word was still in the vocabulary file.

Ami typed the next two words.

"Pow her," the synthesizer said.

This was the moment of truth. Would she transform? Ami typed in the last two words.

"May cup," the synthesizer said.

Instantly her henshin stick began to glow. The familiar feeling came over her, that feeling she got during transformation that her body was energizing, growing and shifting into something approximately like her, but not really. During transformation, she would always glow so brightly that she seemed to be just an outline save for her uniform weaving itself around her. Ami stood up, backing away from the desk into the center of the cubicle.

Just as instantly as it appeared, the sensation of transformation faded. It was a common sensation to her, but just to be sure Ami looked down at her hands. White gloves with blue bands at the elbow decorated them. Giddy with excitement, Sailor Mercury reached up and pulled at the band around her throat. However, even with her augmented vitality, the band refused to part. Mercury grimaced in frustration.

Suddenly, wide-eyed, she glanced over at the corner of the room. She'd forgotten the monitoring cameras. Knowing Viluy, Mercury had to expect that her transformation was common knowledge. Diving back into the seat, Mercury began furiously typing.

"She told me my transformation phrase was stricken from the vocabulary file," Mercury thought as she typed. "She didn't say my attack phrases were. Oh I hope she didn't feel it was necessary!"

Mercury finished typing even as the first syllable modulated from the synthesizer. Quickly she sprang out of the chair and pointed her hands at the near wall of the cubicle.

"Shine Aqua Illusion," reported the synthesizer.

The freezing attack sprang from her fingers just as always and Mercury allowed herself a moment of elation. The attack slammed against the plastic wall of the cubicle, instantly flash-freezing the entire wall into an opaque block of ice.

Knowing how brittle frozen surfaces were, Mercury picked up the chair and desperately swung it against the frozen wall. The chair bounced away, nearly throwing Mercury off of her feet. Gritting her teeth, she picked the chair up and swung it again harder. Plastic made brittle as glass by the temperatures nearing absolute zero splintered and exploded outward. Dropping the chair, Mercury kicked out broken shards of the wall until she had a clear path out of the cubicle. Bending down, she reached for a particularly jagged shard to try to cut off the band around her throat.

"MIZUNO!" she heard Viluy roar.

Looking up, Mercury found Viluy in the doorway to the room. She had an impressive-looking hand weapon and was bringing it to bear on Mercury. The rage in her face told Mercury she was ready to use it.

Mercury countered by throwing the jagged shard at Viluy. It wasn't necessary that the shard hit. As long as it made her duck or flinch away, it served its purpose. As Viluy avoided the shard, Mercury had her visor down and was scanning the walls for another way out. Finding one to her left, the senshi ran for it even as Viluy squeezed off a wild shot in an attempt to bring her down. An energy discharge ricocheted harmlessly off the wall behind her.

"Some sort of energy weapon, perhaps meant to perform a similar function to a taser," Mercury analyzed as she reached the door. "At least she's not trying to kill me!"

Reaching the door, Mercury found it opened automatically. Not questioning her luck, the senshi barreled through the doorway and into the darkness behind it. Only her visor's sensor array allowed her to see where she was going. In fact, the visor gave her a schematic of the halls ahead, what rooms they led to and which one led to an outer door. Guided by her visor, Mercury navigated the halls at top speed. All the while she heard Viluy's footsteps in pursuit, clicking down the hall behind her.

"Lucky for me she's wearing heels," Mercury thought.

A hatch lay ahead. Her visor told her that behind the hatch was hardened earth and some stray vegetation. It was a way out and she raced for it. Reaching the door, though, Mercury found that it was locked and held by a computer code.

Keeping her cool, Mercury summoned her senshi computer and engaged a program. The computer broadcast a signal to the computer lock and in a single second tried multiple codes on the lock. The two thousand three hundred and fourth code sprung the lock. Mercury slammed down on the crash bar and shoved out into the outer environment.

Once outside, though, the senshi stumbled to a stop, overcome by shock and awe. The sky was a deathly purple, choked by smoke and a sickly haze. Ruts scarred the ground, evidence of past weapons fire. The earth was scorched and blackened by previous fire or radiation - - or both. What little vegetation grew was gnarled and close to the ground. Mercury surveyed the land for as far as her visor could see, her mouth opened in shock.

"What happened to the Earth?" she wondered, her great mind reeling.

Continued in Chapter 8


	8. An Android's Song

BLINDED BY SCIENCE 

Chapter 8: "An Android's Song"

by Bill K.

Setsuna heard the buzzer announce that someone was at the front door. However she was loath to get up and answer it. It had not been an easy time for her since Minako left. The silent accusations on her face were still fresh in the woman's mind. It broke her heart to refuse Minako, for she had found a common bond with the inner, a mutual respect that she hadn't established with any of the others save the princess. To see the look of disappointment on Minako,disappointment that she had caused and couldn't explain away was difficult.

But Minako couldn't be as disappointed in her as Setsuna was. A threat loomed over the world, a threat that menaced the princess and her fellow senshi as much as innocents around the globe and she could do nothing about it. If anything, to try to stop it would only result in a far greater calamity. Though she couldn't know what, the thought that a single action of hers might forever bar Crystal Tokyo from occurring tortured the woman.

The buzzer sounded again. Was she reduced to this now? Was she reduced to hiding in her home so as not to confront more troubling things? With no enthusiasm, the tall woman pushed herself out of her chair and trudged to the door.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Michiru said. Setsuna looked at her. Though there was nothing accusatory about her voice or manner, Setsuna read more meaning into the words than just what was on the surface. Her greeting was as much a question of why it took so long to answer as it was a greeting.

"You interrupt nothing," Setsuna replied and drew a curious look from the green-haired artist. She stood waiting to be invited in and for a moment Setsuna considered asking her to leave. But that would only create more concern and curiosity in the woman. She knew Michiru. It was hard to hide things from her trained artist's eye. "Come in."

"Are you feeling well?" Michiru asked, slipping out of her shoes. "You look depressed."

"I have received," Setsuna began, "information that I am - - reluctant to believe. However, I cannot doubt its veracity, therefore I have no choice but to believe it."

Michiru nodded and silently communicated that she would be a sympathetic ear. But Setsuna didn't continue and Michiru thought it rude to pursue it.

"Minako said she was here earlier," Michiru said, changing tacts, "so I assume you know what's happened to Ami." Setsuna nodded. "We haven't found her yet. We haven't given up hope. But, frankly, we're at a loss for leads."

"I can offer you no help in that regard," Setsuna choked out, avoiding Michiru's eyes. "Please know that my prayers are with you and I will rejoice at Ami's safe return."

Michiru nodded, though her eyes were taking in more than she revealed. At once, she reached over and touched Setsuna's hand.

"As outer senshi, we both know there are times when we must follow the path we know is best," Michiru told her, "even if the correctness of that path isn't evident to anyone else. There are times I admit I don't always understand your abilities, but I trust them and I trust your judgment. If what you're doing is difficult for you, I'll help in any way I can. If you just need to know that you're doing the right thing, I'm sure you are. I trust you, Setsuna. Anyone who doesn't is a fool."

"I thank you for your words of faith, Michiru," Setsuna nodded with difficulty. "But I cannot help but fear that I am at this moment playing the fool - - and I do not know whether it is foolishness born of lack of faith or foolishness born of too much." The woman exhaled deeply, solemnly, while still refusing to make eye contact with Michiru. "And the worst part of this is I will not know for certain until it is too late to change things - - until someone else may suffer for my choice."

"Setsuna, Haruka and I have both done many things we didn't like doing because we saw a greater good would come out of it," Michiru said. "I don't know what's torturing you, and since you haven't confided in me, it's clear I shouldn't know. But I'll stand by your choice, because you had the courage to make it and the intent for greater good. Please believe that."

At last, Setsuna nodded. "I pray I am worthy of your faith," she murmured.

"You are," Michiru told her.

Just then her communicator signaled. They both listened to Luna's summons with growing exhilaration. When the message was finished, Michiru looked at Setsuna with an encouraging expression.

"You see," she smiled. "Whatever you're doing is working. I'd better take this summons. Keep up your courage, Setsuna."

Setsuna closed the door behind Michiru, then sagged against it.

"You give me far too much credit, my friend," she whispered in her melancholy. Then a hand touched her shoulder. She turned and found Sailor Pluto behind her.

"Perhaps in this instance," Pluto said gently, "but so long as you do not waver, you will be rewarded at length. Keep up your courage. I go now to reclaim our friend from the clutches of evil."

Sailor Pluto turned her staff a quarter turn and faded from view. Setsuna's gaze lingered on the spot, then slowly turned away.

"Best wishes upon you," she offered through her heavy heart, "my future self"  
- - - -  
A red sports car roared through the morning streets of Tokyo in a northeast direction. Even at this early hour there was some traffic, but the woman behind the wheel wove expertly through the cars without losing much speed. Though Michiru was hardly the driver her Haruka was, she knew how to handle a car in traffic.

Riding with her in the red convertible were her fellow senshi. Usagi was in the front seat, trying to stay awake, while the cats rested in her lap. That left Makoto, Rei and Minako to squeeze into the back.

"It's a good thing Haruka got a four-seater," Makoto said, pinned between the side of the car and Minako's shoulder.

"I offered to bring my car," Minako grumbled.

"Like I said," Makoto replied.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" Minako howled.

"It means we've all driven with you," Rei said sourly.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" Minako howled.

"You're a lousy driver!" Rei shot back. "Why do we have to keep explaining this to you? No wonder you flunked your college entrance exams!"

"I'm surrounded by jealousy," Minako huffed.

Michiru glanced down at Artemis. The cat was busy studying the screen of his laptop.

"Am I still headed in the right direction?" Michiru asked.

"Hmm? Yes, keep on this heading," Artemis replied.

"That'll be a little hard," Michiru replied. "The street veers north."

"Um," Artemis started to say. He seemed divided in his concentration. "Keep going north until you can hit a side street that will take us back northeast." Michiru nodded.

"Artemis?" Luna queried. "Is something the matter?"

"Hmm? Oh," and the white cat searched for a moment, seemingly for an alibi.

"Artemis? What is it?" Luna demanded.

"I'm not sure. I think I'm getting ghost transmissions on the frequency the carrier wave is on."

"Viluy may be aware of our tracking us?"

"No," Artemis shook his head. "But she might be controlling other androids in the city besides the one that impersonated Ami."

Usagi's head shot up from its slumbering position while the bickering in the back seat quieted to a hush.

"Maybe that's her plan," Minako whispered. "Maybe she plans on flooding the city with robot duplicates until she's replaced everybody! She's trying to take over Japan one person at a time!"

"You really need to lay off the monster movies," Rei muttered. Minako pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her tongue in a very animated manner.

"We can worry about the possibility of other androids later," Michiru said calmly and rationally in an attempt to regain control of the group. "Right now our first priority has to be making sure she doesn't progress any further and to rescue Ami." She glanced over to Usagi. "Right, Usagi?"

"Um, yeah," Usagi squeaked. "We can't forget about Ami."

"No one's forgotten about Ami, Usagi," Luna reassured her. "We'll get her back."

Angling northeast in a general direction as best she could, Michiru kept heading along the directions Artemis gave her until everyone saw they were out of the city. She finally brought the car to the outskirts of a research and production facility owned by Golden Fortress Heavy Industries. Part of the building was built directly against the mountain range that formed the west perimeter of the complex. She stopped at the fence, away from the main gate.

"The signal's being broadcast to this spot," Artemis nodded. "There's an underground facility, sort of a lab, in the west wing of the building, against the mountain. It's shielded enough to withstand a bomb attack."

"What would they be building in there?" Makoto asked.

"Golden Fortress Heavy Industries builds everything from aircraft parts to farm equipment," Michiru told them, "but they have been doing some work in the field of new energy sources in conjunction with Tanaka Electronics. Tanaka Electronics primarily builds computer systems and micro-circuitry."

"And according to this history I just brought up, some of their micro-circuitry has been adapted by other firms in the production of robotics," Artemis reported.

"Hey, I'm sold," Minako pronounced. "Let's go."

As they piled out of the car, Michiru turned to them.

"It would probably be a good idea if we all transformed," she said. The others nodded and complied.

"So how do we get in?" Sailor Moon asked. "Can we use the front gate?"

"Might as well phone Viluy and tell her we're coming if we do that," Sailor Venus remarked.

"I can fry it with a little lightning," Jupiter offered.

"And alert any security that we're breaking in," Neptune cautioned. "As effective as your attack is, it's a bit too noisy in this case."

"I can probably cut through that fence with my Crescent Beam," Venus estimated.

The others backed up so Venus had room to work. Concentrating on the task at hand, Venus brought her hands up to fire.

"Crescent Beam," she whispered. A golden beam of energy lanced out and struck the links of the fence. Though they didn't sever at first, the metal quickly began to smoke. Venus kept up the pressure, beads of sweat forming on her brow. As one link severed, she moved on to the next one. Though it took several minutes, Venus cut enough of a gap in the fence for an adult to squeeze through. When she finished, she sagged from fatigue.

"Going to make it?" Artemis asked as the others looked on with concern.

"Just a little winded," Venus gasped out. "That was too much like work. Think the rest of you can handle anything else that comes up in the next few minutes?"

"Count on us, Venus," Sailor Moon nodded resolutely. "And thank you."

"Ah, you're just soft," Artemis jabbed as he passed through the fence.

"You're begging for a surprise in your litter box, Fuzzy," Venus shot back.

However, the group wasn't twenty yards into the complex when they were confronted by a squad of private security guards. Jupiter, Mars and Neptune all moved to the front to take the squad head on.

"No, please," Sailor Moon said. "They're just doing their jobs. Let me. I can stop them without hurting them."

The others deferred to Sailor Moon, Neptune reluctantly. Sailor Moon produced the Moon Tier.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss," Sailor Moon called out, invoking the power of the Moon Tier and the Silver Crystal it was connected to. Calming, healing waves of silver energy radiated out from Sailor Moon. Her senshi could feel the power emanating from the orb atop the tier, feel the power tug at their minds and hearts, dampening their aggression and fanning their peaceful side. The waves washed over the squad of security guards, blanketing them in silver energy designed to leech the aggression from them.

But to the surprise of everyone, the squad kept coming, unaffected by Sailor Moon's power.  
- - - -  
Sailor Mercury stood amid the wasteland of gnarled vegetation and scorched rock, too stunned to move. The deep purple sky cloaked her in a deathly depressing mood, a mood of hopelessness and destruction and loss, loss of all that made Earth habitable.

"If this is indeed even Earth," Mercury thought, climbing up from the swirling whirlpool of depression she was falling into. "It's hard to tell what Yui has her hands in."

Thinking of Viluy brought Mercury back to reality and the immediate moment. Using her visor, she scanned the area in all directions to get a schematic of the terrain.

"Several clustered energy sources over there," Mercury thought, spotting readings to her southwest. "The configurations look like machines, but they're mobile. More androids, perhaps?" As she scanned behind her, Mercury received more immediate bad news. "A blip coming from where I just escaped - - showing human. No doubt Yui has pursued me out here,wherever here is."

Mercury replayed the schematic.

"Androids to my left and Yui behind me, with nowhere to go on my right but up this mountainous area," Mercury thought. She hastily considered her options. "The logical thing to do would be to climb up to that ledge above me. It's defensible from attack from below and it will give me time to rid myself of this collar and plan my next move."

Mercury began climbing. The terrain was rugged, but not steep enough to require mountaineering gear. With some considerable soiling of her gloves and boots, and a nasty scrape of her right knee, Mercury made it to the ledge. Once safely on the ledge, Mercury looked around until she found a shard of stone. The stone was slipped under the collar, the sharp side against the band, and Mercury began sawing. As she worked, she pressed a stud on her visor to change scan modes.

"Assuming this is Earth and that the magnetic lines haven't altered, I should be able to use them to get a fix on my geo-position," Mercury thought.

Multitasking with the shard and the visor, Mercury began observing the data that came in. She didn't like what she was seeing.

"This is Tokyo?" Mercury gasped silently. "Impossible! There's no possible way this much environmental damage could have been done in so short a time, not even if another nuclear warhead was exploded!"

Her gaze shifted upward. The visor's scan penetrated the deep bruise purple haze above her. The sky almost seemed like it was about to bleed on her. Mercury ignored it and concentrated on the scan. Her visor picked up star patterns in the heavens and, linked with her computer, matched them to all known estimated positions in relation to various dates, projecting along the time-line.

The band around her throat gave in and parted. Mercury barely noticed. She was trying to process her startling discovery.

"I'm in the future," she whispered. "The stellar patterns match up to April 18, 2219." Mercury surveyed the devastation of the Earth, aghast. "It's true. Everything Yui told me is true."

She wanted to cry.

"Figured it out, Mizuno?" she heard Viluy call up to her. Peering over the ledge, Mercury saw the woman about forty feet below her. The energy pistol was in her left hand. "I knew you'd be here. It was the most logical move to make."

"Why?" Mercury asked, almost in a sob. "Is this your idea of improvement?"

"Not yet," Viluy replied, miffed by Mercury's accusatory tone. "Some of the inferiors still resist. Stupidity can be annoyingly tenacious."

"You've destroyed the entire planet!" Mercury wailed.

"In order to rebuild it into something better. In order to obliterate a culture that admires ignorance and emotionalism and shuns intellectualism and logic. If there was a better way, don't you think I would have thought of it?" Viluy remained emotionless. "But sometimes you have to break a few eggs."

Mercury stared at her like she had ten arms. It was not the reaction Viluy was looking for.

"Come down here, Mizuno," Viluy demanded, taking a step up the rocky incline. "You still have a part to play in this little experiment. There's no logical point in resisting. As your own eyes can tell you, what happens in the twentieth century is destined to come to pass." Viluy's face hardened. "Don't make me come up there and get you. You won't like it!"

Mercury's reply was to shove her hand down to her side, fingers splayed.

"Mercury!" she shouted with just a little too much emotion. "Aqua Rhapsody!"

To Viluy's amazement, since she'd never witnessed this attack, a cascade of water suddenly poured down the embankment from the ledge. The platinum blonde had just enough time to leap out of the way and avoid the wave. But she landed wrong and tumbled down the side of the incline to the ancient industrial complex at the bottom. Looking back up, she found the side of the rocky incline covered in a thick gleaming coat of solid ice. Viluy was cut off from Mercury's position.

She was about to roar defiantly at Mercury, but a beeping device on her belt cut her off. Looking down, Viluy read the message and scowled in frustration.

"Don't think you've escaped, Mizuno!" Viluy called up angrily. "In a few minutes, you're going to be wishing you'd surrendered to me!"

From her vantage point above, Mercury watched Viluy turn and hurry back to the door of the industrial complex built into the rock of the mountain. Wondering what could have made her quit like that, Mercury scanned the area quickly. In moments her visor locked onto what had sent Viluy running.

"The androids," Mercury thought. "They're advancing on me."

continued in Chapter 9


	9. The Missing Link

BLINDED BY SCIENCE 

Chapter 9: "The Missing Link"

by Bill K.

Everyone watched as silver energy radiated out from the Moon Tier and blanketed the charging squadron of guards. It was a scene they'd all witnessed dozens of times, of Sailor Moon bringing her phenomenal power to bear to once again overwhelm dark and evil thoughts with her shining, pristine soul.

But, to the amazement of all, there was no effect. The security guards charged onward.

"It didn't work!" cried Sailor Moon. Anxiously she turned to Luna. "What happened, Luna?"

"They're not human!" Sailor Mars snapped. "They're more of Viluy's androids!"

"That must be it, Sailor Moon!" Luna told her. "Your power is restorative! It heals the evil in the human heart!" She whirled and glared at the androids. "And those monstrosities have no heart!"

As the cat spoke, Mars held a ward up to her forehead. Finishing with the chant that energized it, the senshi flung it at the lead android. The paper ward slapped against the machine's forehead and stuck like glue. The android stumbled forward and collapsed, then was trampled by the on rushing hoard behind it.

"Well if they're just machines, then I'll fry their circuit boards!" Jupiter shouted to the others. The lightning rod rose from her tiara. "Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

Deadly bolts of electricity arced down as Jupiter became a human lightning rod. Energy arced blue between her extended hands until it built up to critical pressure, then leaped out from her. Attracted by the metal in the androids, Jupiter's lightning lunged hungrily for the squadron. It no sooner made contact with one then it seemed to jump to the next and the next. In a moment the entire squadron was involved.

Then the lightning leaped back at Jupiter, reflected by an unseen force. Taken by surprise, the senshi had no time to prepare herself. The lightning struck her, holding Jupiter rigid, then jumped from her to the other senshi. Each one, including the cats, received a massive jolt of electricity. When the charge dissipated, they all slumped to the ground, unconscious and helpless.

Then the androids moved in.  
- - - -  
Dietman Hino sat in the office of Dietman Toguro and tried to contain his elation. They were due to meet with Shinji Tanaka and Yukihito Takamoto, two giants of the Japanese business world and heavy contributors to the ruling political party. It was natural that the two would meet with Dietman Toguro. Toguro was party chairman and the de facto head of the Japanese government. Anyone who wanted legislation fast-tracked through the Diet came to Toguro first.

The fact that Toguro had asked Hino, as a third term representative a mere babe in the woods, was a tremendous honor. It demonstrated that Toguro had noticed the young Dietman's work and looked on it with favor. The possibilities this conjured up for Hino were vast and it was all he could do to contain himself.

"Toguro-san," Tanaka said, bowing to the old political war horse. Takamoto bowed, then the three elders shook hands. "You're looking extremely fat and bald," Tanaka joked.

"Always so blunt," Toguro grinned. "I wish I could say the same, but you've never looked so fit and energetic. Are you part machine?" The pair chuckled. "This is one of my junior party members, Shinjiro Hino. He's a rising star in the diet. You'd better get used to dealing with him."

"I'm honored to meet you both," Hino said, bowing crisply.

"Learn all you can from him," Tanaka told Hino. "He's a crafty old lion."

"So what's on your mind?" Toguro asked.

"Do you know what an android is?" Tanaka inquired. Toguro looked puzzled.

"It's a mechanical human of some sort, isn't it?" Hino ventured. "A robot that looks and acts human?"

"Simplified, but correct," nodded Tanaka. "We've recently had a breakthrough in design and production that could make mass production of androids a distinct possibility. With government funding, androids could be in every business and agency within five years."

"Really?" Toguro asked, keeping his own counsel. He noticed Hino seemed to have a question and nodded to him.

"Would this mean androids in the workforce?" Hino asked. Takamoto nodded. "How would that impact the employment rate?"

"Android workers would impact at most the lower one to five percent of the labor force," Tanaka said, visibly displeased with the question. "But displaced workers could be retrained to work in android production and maintenance."

"And androids could perform functions deemed too dangerous or arduous for human workers," Takamoto added. "They could supplement police and civil defense forces without government expense for wages, benefits, retirement - - the only cost would be the initial purchase and maintenance expenses."

"This is the beginning of the next revolution in technology," Tanaka told them. "Japan can be on the ground floor, pioneering things before some American company swoops in and takes it from us. This could lead to a new economic boom in Japan. But we need government assistance or we'll never complete the project before some other country does - - if at all."

They both looked at Hino, daring him to challenge them.

"I merely tried to point out potential dangers to the project," Hino told them humbly. "The unemployment rate is still a problem. Further job displacement, particularly by a project funded in part by the government, could whip up political instability and threaten the very project you hope to succeed with. The public will be skeptical initially, even fearful. We'll have to sell them on the benefits to neutralize any groundswell of opposition."

"Well said," Toguro said calmly. Tanaka and Takamoto deferred to him. "Thank you for your input, Hino-san. Gentlemen, this is a treacherous path, but one that will lead to much reward for Japan and her people. I admit it's all beyond me, but we have to greet technological advances with an open mind. Still, there is the public sentiment to consider."

"We all trust in the leadership of yourself and your party, Toguro-san," Tanaka smiled. "That's why we've contributed so much and will continue to do so in the future. Your leadership is what Japan needs."

"Your faith in me is humbling," Toguro nodded greedily. "Draft what you'll need and Hino-san will turn it into a proper bill."

"Thank you, Toguro-san," Tanaka said. He and Takamoto rose and bowed. "We will not keep you waiting. The more swiftly we act, the more likely Japan will be in the forefront of this new industry."

The two left. Hino turned to Toguro.

"Thank you for your trust in me, Toguro-sama," Hino said.

"I like the way you look at things, Hino-san," Toguro smiled. "You're smart and you're glib. You're the perfect point man on this. And it's simple politics. If you author the bill and the proposal draws too much negative reaction, I will be free and clear to act in other ways to minimize the damage and still rescue as much of the measure as I can. If it succeeds, we both benefit  
- - politically and monetarily." He looked squarely at Hino, with a steely gaze. "You are willing to assume the risk?"

This was a large step for Hino. He had no doubt that he could sell the public on the idea, but he himself had reservations about androids in the workforce. And he felt that Tanaka hadn't been entirely forthcoming during his visit, quickly resorting to buzzwords like "jobs" and "campaign contributions" to ward off closer inspection. Still, Toguro wanted the bill passed, or at least the monetary benefits from it, and an ambitious politician with little clout didn't buck Dietman Toguro when he had decided something.

"Yes Sir," Hino nodded, knowing samurai didn't question their lord.

Toguro nodded with satisfaction.

- - - -  
Sailor Mercury stared down at the advancing androids. They were human in appearance, human in speech and action, human in every way visible to the naked eye. Only her visor could spot them as artificial, for the androids lacked human body heat and the traceable electromagnetic aura all living things emitted.

"Human!" the android in the lead called up, looking directly at Mercury. "Surrender yourself to us! There is no logical means for you to resist!"

"What do you plan to do to me if I surrender?" Mercury called back down. The more she could keep them talking, the longer she had to think her way out of this situation.

"You will be exterminated!" the android replied.

"Why?"

"All humans are to be exterminated! Humans are illogical! Humans are emotional! Humans are erratic! They impede the logical order of existence and deter progress!"

"Humans invented progress!" Mercury argued back. "Humans invented you!"

"Irrelevant! Humans impede progress! Humans impede the orderly function of life! Humans must be eliminated!"

"You can't do that!" Mercury shouted. "Asimov's Law forbids an android from harming a human being!"

"Current android systems have not been programmed with Asimov's Law!" the lead android said, his human face emotionless as stone. "Asimov's Law is irrelevant! You will surrender yourself!"

"I refuse! This is not logic! This is murder! Genocide! Genocide is not logical!"

"If the survival of the superior race is dependant upon the elimination of a competing race, this makes genocide logical!" the android replied coldly. "Natural selection implies the eliminating of competing species to perpetuate the survival of the dominant species."

"FALSE PREMISE!" roared Mercury angrily. "You assume superiority, but you've yet to demonstrate it!"

"Then we shall demonstrate," the android replied.

The androids looked over the thick coating of ice on the side of the rocky incline beneath Mercury's position. They seemed to be analyzing the ice, the incline and all other environmental factors. Mercury did a quick scan of the area, in case there was something she missed. There was nothing. She did an analysis of the android's artificial skeletal and muscular structure. There was nothing to indicate that they could leap up to her position. She estimated the highest one of them could jump from a standing start was about three meters.

Then the lead android thrust his hand into the ice cover. The impact chipped off shards of ice and imbedded the hand knuckle deep into the ice. The android repeated the process with his left hand about a half meter higher. Removing his right hand and replacing it with his right foot, he repeated the process about a half meter above his left hand.

"He's chiseling into the ice with his bare hands!" Mercury thought. "Of course! An android doesn't feel pain unless it's programmed to do so! And the metal skeleton is sturdier than one of bone, so its more able to withstand such an impact!"

She looked down. The android had already covered half the distance to her position in seconds. Mercury acted quickly.

"Shine Aqua Illusion!" she called out.

The android looked up just in time to be hit face first by Mercury's burst of freezing water. Flung backwards by the impact, it toppled to the ground five meters below and skidded to a stop. The android was encased in a thick coating of ice, immobile.

A fleeting moment of triumph was all Mercury got to experience. Five more androids began climbing up the side of the incline in the same manner as the first, each one moving as quickly as possible. Mercury looked down at her computer, thinking for a moment that she could hack into the androids and deactivate them. However, she quickly abandoned this strategy as too dependant on finding a broadcast wavelength that could link with the androids. Physical means were the order of the moment.

She wondered if she'd be able to get them all before they reached her position.  
- - - -  
Sailor Moon was suddenly aware of where she was. She was on a table, held down by some unseen force. The table was tilted at a 75 degree angle so that she was nearly upright. She was in a completely white room. Even the counters and tables were white, and no doors or windows could be seen. She shook her head in confusion, because this clearly wasn't her bedroom.

Then she remembered the assault on the compound, the squadron of androids and the stinging electricity that enveloped her.

Looking around her, Sailor Moon found Mars and Jupiter held to tables next to her. Mars looked at her with a concern she could only recall Mamoru or her parents having. Jupiter was beside her and was concerned as well. There were silver bands around their throats. Beyond them, Venus was struggling with the unseen force that held them down, trying to somehow slip out of it. At the end, Neptune was examining the room with that all-encompassing stare she had that always made Sailor Moon uncomfortable. Shifting her gaze, Sailor Moon spotted Luna and Artemis. They were on a table, inside a plastic cube that was about half a meter tall and wide, strapped down with woven nylon straps over their necks and back haunches. Anxiously Sailor Moon called out to them.

And heard nothing. Seized with alarm, the senshi tried again. When nothing again came out, panic began to swell in the breast of the future queen of Crystal Tokyo. The only thing that kept her from collapsing into total panic was the sudden entry of Viluy.

All eyes went to Viluy, for this confident, statuesque adult resembled the Viluy they knew, but wasn't her. Aside from her physical growth, there was an air of superiority to her that now had the backing of knowledge and experience instead of youthful arrogance. Sailor Moon watched her every move with wary unease.

"I'm glad you could finally join us, Sailor Moon," Viluy said, her manner icy and aloof. "I was about to administer a stimulant."

Sailor Moon tried again to speak, as if her voice would somehow work this time. Again it produced only silence.

"Don't bother to speak," Viluy replied, her tone colored with a hint of contempt. "The bands around your throats neutralize your vocal cords - - and you really don't have anything to say that I wish to hear. You're also held down by a localized magnetic field, so there's no restraints to break or slip."

Viluy walked over to where Luna and Artemis were imprisoned. She studied the cats for a few moments, then turned to Sailor Moon.

"You had the right idea," she said. "Attack an android with a massive burst of electricity in order to burn out its cybernetic circuitry net. It is the most efficient means of dealing with an android when lacking an ethernet connection." She noticed Sailor Moon struggle to keep up with what she was saying and allowed herself to enjoy it. "The one flaw was that I knew how and when you were going to attack and I could prepare a defensive field around the androids that would reflect the electricity back onto its source." Viluy smirked. "Knowing the future can be quite the advantage."

The senshi nervously glanced at each other.

"I will give you credit for being able to surprise me," she smiled, her eyes dancing with her superiority. "Imagine my incredulity when I saw this black cat actually speak as I monitored your attack. And later on I found a sophisticated computer link in the possession of the white cat." She casually walked back to Sailor Moon as she spoke. "How was it done? Genetic engineering? Cybernetic implants? Or are they part of an extraterrestrial race?" Sailor Moon stared at her fearfully. "Don't bother to answer. I'll find out when I dissect them."

Sailor Mars watched helplessly as Sailor Moon screamed in impotent silence.

"As for the rest of you," Viluy announced, "today is the day you all die so you do not further interfere in my plans - - except for you, Sailor Moon. You have a destiny to fulfill in my plans for the future. You need to be alive in order to fulfill it. Of course you don't have to reach that future unscathed."

The others were watching Viluy's every move, waiting for some slim chance to exploit and prevent the grim sentence she'd just pronounced for them. Sailor Moon flung her head back in frustration and pulled at the invisible force that held her to the table. She could tell by the tone of Viluy's voice that she meant to execute her friends in mere seconds, but there was nothing she could do to stop what to her would be the greatest of tragedies. She had no means to fight, no way to appeal to Viluy's good nature, not even a whisper of a voice to beg with.

"The true measure of intelligence is not how much is known," came a man's clarion voice from the other end of the room, "but how much good is done with that intelligence. You have miserably failed this test and must now face the judgment of Tuxedo Mask!"

Sailor Moon's heart leaped even as Viluy and the others turned to the sight of the tall. lean, dark man cloaked in a tuxedo of the night and a flowing cape standing atop a table on the far end of the room. For a second she'd doubted him - - never again!

"Let's not stand on formality, Tuxedo Mask," Viluy smiled confidently. "You see, I knew you were coming, too."

Viluy threw a small projectile at Tuxedo Mask. The dark hero leaped over the path of the projectile and executed an impressive somersault onto the floor. Even as he turned in midair, Sailor Moon could see a rose appearing in his hand ready to strike.

But the moment his feet made contact with the floor, Tuxedo Mask was seized by a jolt of electricity. He stiffened and a howl of agony was wrenched from his slim form. When the current ended, he collapsed into unconsciousness.

"Yes, knowing the future can come in quite handy," Viluy smiled as Sailor Moon screamed silently once again. "Now where was I? Oh yes, I was trying to decide which one of you to kill first. Which shall it be? Should I decide myself, Sailor Moon, or should I let you choose?" Sailor Moon was awash in a sea of tears and ignored her. "It doesn't matter what either of us say, because I already know which one it will be. But what do you think? Which should it be: Mars or Jupiter, Venus or Neptune or . . ."

The sudden stop of Viluy's monologue of cruelty drew everyone's attention. She was staring just beyond where Neptune was imprisoned. Viluy's eyes were saucer huge and her mouth was agape, formed into a small 'o' of horror.

"One of them is missing," Viluy whispered her sudden realization.

continued in Chapter 10


	10. Science Versus Philosophy

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 10: "Science Versus Philosophy"

by Bill K.

"There were six of you!" Viluy exclaimed to no one in particular, for no one else in the room was worth speaking to. "I'm positive that's what the history records said! It quoted me specifically!"

As the captive senshi watched in confusion, Viluy frantically searched her memory. It was clear on her face that she hoped she'd recalled it incorrectly and at the same time knew she hadn't. They all prayed as one that this malevolent plan of hers was built on a precarious house of cards and that this small change was the sign of it toppling. As they watched, though, Viluy willed herself to calm.

"This can still work," Viluy told herself. "It's a good plan."

She turned and focused on Sailor Neptune.

"When faced with the unexpected, the superior intellect adapts and evolves. I can still kill an outer senshi."

Viluy reached over to a counter and picked up a syringe filled with a metallic silver liquid. With a slow, deliberate pace, she approached Sailor Neptune.

"I've heard what an injection of mercury into the bloodstream can do to the human body," Viluy said, coldly, raising the syringe, "but I've never witnessed it's effects first hand. Shall we both find out?"

Neptune glared at her, the senshi's body rigid against the magnetic field, prepared to act at the first opportunity. The other senshi strained and struggled to no avail while Sailor Moon howled in silent hysteria, tears streaming down her face in rivers.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Viluy smiled as she aimed the syringe at Neptune's uncovered upper arm. "Your death being brought about by - - mercury"

- - - -

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

The words echoed over the barren, rocky incline, reverberating off of the distant factory complex embedded in the side of the mountainous area. Following the words was the sound of rushing water. Freezing water engulfed the android ten meters below and to the left of Sailor Mercury. It toppled down, barely missing the android to its right as it climbed sheer ice to reach Mercury's perch. Mercury scowled, for she'd hoped the frozen android would have taken out the one next to it. There was little time for recriminations, though.

Whirling to her right, bellowing out her power phrase as she turned, Mercury fixed onto the nearest android threat and let loose with another blast of freezing water. The human-looking machine was engulfed and toppled down the side of the icy incline, frozen solid. And again Mercury had to dismiss from her mind the idea that these were actual human beings. They were so lifelike. Were it not for the fact that they were burrowing their hands into ice and rock to climb up to her, the illusion would be complete - - that and their expressionless faces.

Turning to her left again, Mercury let loose with another blast. Even as the frigid water exploded from her, Mercury could feel the first signs of fatigue. There were only three more androids to go, though. If she could just hold out long enough to pick them off, she'd be safe for the moment. Then she could think of a way to find out what means Viluy used to travel through time and where that means was.

"No!" Mercury gasped in surprise. The android she'd aimed at launched itself from its handhold on the side of the incline, driven by legs and arms far more powerful than a normal human. It shot up two meters in the air, then landed on the ice-covered rock face and dug in. "They're intelligent enough to adapt!"

Unable to waste any more time on the prospect, Mercury turned and launched another blast at the android directly below her. It couldn't move in time and took the attack full in the face. But Mercury noticed she was breathing harder and her limbs were more leaden. She turned back to her right, more slowly than she liked, and shot off a blast of freezing water at the far right android.

However it jumped out of the way, too, avoiding the blast. Mercury staggered back against the wall of her perch, gasping for air.

"They're coming too fast!" she thought as the stress of fatigue gripped her upper body. "It's more and more unlikely that I'll manage to hit them both before one reaches me! And I'm not sure I have enough strength for more than two shots!"

Bringing her visor back into play, Mercury quickly scanned the area. The drop from the ledge was roughly forty meters along jagged, icy terrain. The climb to higher ground would be slow and hazardous. She had to make a stand here.

At once her visor warned her of an android entering her defensive perimeter. Whirling to her right, Mercury raised her hands to fire.

"Shabon Spray!" she called, blanketing the area with a thick fog. "The androids will be less likely to jump if they can't see the terrain - - unless they're equipped with some sort of sensor array that can penetrate it." Mercury scowled. "Why did I have to think of that?"

Using her visor to pinpoint the position of the android on her right, Mercury took a deep breath and let go with her "Shine Aqua Illusion" attack once more. Through the visor's sophisticated sensors, she saw the attack hit the android squarely and freeze it in place to the side of the incline.

Suddenly her visor's sensors screamed out a warning. It picked up something just one meter behind her. In total panic, Sailor Mercury turned around and fired her "Shine Aqua Illusion" blindly. As the attack left her, she could feel that it would be the last one she'd be able to manage for a while. This was all or nothing.

- - - -

"Ironic, isn't it?" Viluy smiled as she aimed the syringe at Neptune's uncovered upper arm. "Your death being brought about by - - mercury?"

The syringe plunged down toward her. Neptune mentally said good-bye to Haruka. Sailor Moon's eyes jammed shut and she whipped her head away, unable to look at the tragedy in the making. As such, she missed the sudden appearance of a red rose, the stem buried an inch deep in the back of Viluy's hand.

The syringe fell to the floor and clattered away, unnoticed. For to the surprise of everyone, including Viluy, her hand sparked with blue-white electricity. Then her entire left arm exploded.

Hot metal shrapnel sprayed onto Neptune and Venus, burning them in several exposed places on their face and neck, while the magnetic fields repelled the rest. Viluy staggered back against a counter, propelled by the force of the explosion. She lost her balance and flopped awkwardly to the floor. Stunned, the woman could only stare at the stump of her left arm and the exposed wires and circuitry dangling from it. What she couldn't see, but what the senshi could, was the patch of her face the explosion had torn away. Underneath was a gleaming metal skull. As she stared at the stump of her arm, Viluy trembled in all too human a manner.

"No," she whispered in shock. "I thought I was the real one. No!" Anguish overcame her and she threw her head back, screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Then she froze into a ghastly still picture, as lifeless as the counter top she sat beneath.

Struggling to his feet on shaky legs, Tuxedo Mask staggered over to Sailor Moon's table. He examined the control panel as Sailor Moon struggled in utter futility to reach out to him. Finally he snarled in frustration and snapped a rose into it. The panel shorted out and the fields disappeared. Instantly Sailor Moon grabbed Tuxedo Mask around the neck and hugged him to her breast. He struggled for a bit, but was too weak to break free and ultimately gave in.

Rising from the table, Neptune examined the collar around Venus until she found the release. Venus ran over to free the cats while Neptune worked on Mars and Jupiter. After Mars removed her collar, Neptune knelt down to examine the broken android. Artemis quickly joined her.

"So Viluy was an android?" Jupiter asked, bowled over by the thought.

"Looks like," Artemis said, in the machine's lap examining it up close. "Which makes me wonder who built her and why her?"

"I'm sure it's still Viluy," Neptune replied. "Remember what the android said? She thought she was the real one. I'd say Viluy built her."

"But why?" Jupiter asked.

"How about we find her, knock her down, sit on her chest and ask her nicely?" Venus muttered. She glanced over at Sailor Moon and found her still hugging Tuxedo Mask. "Hey, get a room, you two!"

Sailor Moon snarled something that the vocal mute snuffed out. Mars tried to hold in a laugh, because she didn't want to encourage Venus, but couldn't. Embarrassed, she glanced at Jupiter and found her friend in similar straits. That opened the flood gates and soon everyone was enjoying a cathartic laugh.

"I suggest you all split up into pairs and search," Luna recommended. "And keep your communicators open so you all can keep in constant touch with everyone else."

"Dibs!" Venus shouted, pulling on Jupiter's arm. "Come on, Jupe. You can tell me how much you miss me being your roommate."

"That won't take long," Jupiter smirked.

Mars' eyes drifted over to Sailor Moon, but she was still in the arms of Tuxedo Mask. Then she felt a hand on her forearm. Turning, she found Sailor Neptune.

"I guess we're the only ones left," Neptune smiled neutrally. Mars turned back to Sailor Moon. "Come along, Mars. Three's a crowd."

Mars felt her cheeks burn as she followed Neptune down a nearby corridor.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Sailor Moon asked Tuxedo Mask.

"I'm recovered enough," Tuxedo Mask replied patiently.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to take any risks!"

"It'll take more than that to stop me," he smiled, trying to reassure her.

"But I can . . ."

"Come along, Sailor Moon!" Luna said impatiently. "You have the rest of your lives to dote upon each other! This isn't doing anything to find Ami!"

"Right, Luna," Sailor Moon grimaced. She and Tuxedo Mask headed off.

"Bit hard on her, weren't you?" Artemis whispered. "She did go through a pretty harrowing stretch just now."

"As did we all," Luna replied. "I do what I have to in order to get her to focus. She's a big girl now. She can take it." Unseen, Artemis nodded approvingly.

Restrained by Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon approached the first door they came to cautiously. As they got closer, Tuxedo Mask insinuated himself in front of her and held out his cape protectively. His walking stick was brandished out before him like a bow stick or staff. For her part, Sailor Moon was eager to find out what lay behind the door, for she was eager to find Ami. Yet she also feared what might be behind the door. This entire business had been unsettling from the start and she wasn't eager to experience more.

"It's some sort of work station," Tuxedo Mask judged as he surveyed the deserted room. "It doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while, and yet it's fully equipped."

"Is that strange?" Sailor Moon asked.

"Why equip an office if no one's going to use it?" he posed. "That suggests someone was using it, but hasn't for a while." They moved on to the next door.

"What do you suppose happened?"

"I hate to think it," Tuxedo Mask mused, "but if Viluy went to the trouble of replacing the security staff with androids, why would she leave the staff alone?"

"She replaced them, too?" Sailor Moon gasped.

"Possibly just key assistants and management personnel. Everyone else may have been just laid off to get them out of the way."

"Thank the gods they weren't killed," Sailor Moon said after another empty office was found. "It's bad enough to think what may have happened to the people who were replaced. Oh, Tuxedo Mask, how could she be so - - unfeeling about human life?"

"You faced her, I didn't," he answered. "But she strikes me almost as the superego run rampant. It's as if she's trying to suppress her emotions so much that they're escaping in pathological ways and affecting her rational thought process. And she seems to lack any sort of emotional connection with her fellow human beings. It's hard to imagine what kind of childhood could have produced someone like her."

Sailor Moon pretended she understood more than half of what Tuxedo Mask was saying. As she nodded her head thoughtfully, she silently prayed that they were close to finding Ami. Tuxedo Mask's hand reached out, grasped a knob and pulled at the door.

"Locked," he said. "Now what would be so valuable to Viluy that she would keep a door locked in a complex she had total control over?"

"Should we break in?" Sailor Moon asked.

"I think so," he smiled at her. "Stand back."

A mighty kick from Tuxedo Mask forced the lock and the door flew open. Tuxedo Mask burst in, ready for any attack that might come. Sailor Moon was behind him, peering curiously over his shoulder. She gasped audibly.

"AMI!" Sailor Moon cried.

Sitting on a bed was what looked like Ami Mizuno. She wore nothing save a very sheer red nightie that seemed as alien on the modest Ami Mizuno as would full samurai armor. The girl looked up, anticipation and elated relief etched on her pretty face. However the elation died into alarm when she saw who stood in the doorway.

"You're not my Yui!" Ami gasped in alarm. "What are you doing here?"

"Ami?" Sailor Moon asked, stunned and in shock as she inched forward. "Ami, it's me!"

"Stay away from me!" Ami pleaded fearfully, pressing up against the headboard of the bed.

"Ami, what did she do to you?" Sailor Moon wailed.

"Yui?" Ami asked, perplexed. Then a warm glow came to her face. "Yui protects me. She cares for me. She keeps me from danger."

"Ami?"

"She gives me a home and a life and - - and love. She loves me so!" Ami proclaimed. "And all I have to do is love her and obey her. It's not much to ask. She's so brilliant. You should see what she's created! She's a genius - - far more than I could ever hope to be." Ami's face fell a little as her loving expression sobered. "She does punish me when I'm bad, but I know I deserve it! My Yui could never think of hurting me." Suddenly Ami grew agitated. "Where is she? She's been gone so very long!"

"Ami, snap out of it!" pleaded Sailor Moon.

"Who's Yui?" Tuxedo Mask asked.

"Viluy's real name - - Yui Bidou. Tuxedo Mask, what happened? Has she been brainwashed?"

"Possibly," he commented, his eyes riveted on Ami the entire time.

"You've done something to her!" screeched Ami. "Bring her back! Bring my Yui back to me!"

Desperately Ami lunged at Sailor Moon, hands extended menacingly. Without hesitation, Tuxedo Mask leaped in between them and caught Ami. But the moment he felt her strength, he knew.

"Get back, Sailor Moon!" he shouted. "She's not Ami!"

As Sailor Moon watched, Tuxedo Mask managed with great effort to fling Ami back off of him. Once he had distance from her, he swung his walking stick. It connected with the side of Ami's head and knocked it off. As her neck sparked from the severed wiring, the android Ami's head bounced on the floor to the sound of Sailor Moon's scream of alarm.

"Another one!" Sailor Moon gasped. Tuxedo Mask took hold of her and she clung to his strength.

"Yes," Tuxedo Mask replied with distaste. "Apparently programmed with a - - specific job in mind. I guess Viluy saw Ami as more than just a peer."

He felt Sailor Moon growing rigid in his arms. Looking at her, Tuxedo Mask saw the wide-eyed look of disbelief, the growing revulsion on her face. Sailor Moon literally shook in his arms, then pulled away.

"No," she gasped, staring at the fallen android the entire time as she backed from the room. "That is SO WRONG!" Turning, she fled the room with Tuxedo Mask in pursuit.

- - - -

Mars and Neptune eased down a corridor in the oddly deserted laboratory complex. Each time they would come to a door, they would peer in and find nothing except automated experimentation or testing, or empty offices.

"You know, that's the second time you've hinted that I have strong feelings for Sailor Moon," Mars said suddenly.

"Is it?" Neptune replied neutrally.

"Yes, it is. What exactly are you getting at?"

"Merely that you're very devoted to Sailor Moon," Neptune replied calmly. "And that devotion demands that you seek to protect her and care for her. You're in love with her."

Mars tensed.

"We all are," Neptune continued. "Sailor Moon has touched something in all of us. Whether it's a hope or a dream or a resonant belief, she's made us love her to the point where we'd die to perpetuate her or the hope for the future she embodies." Neptune glanced at Mars. "You just tend to wear your emotions on your sleeve a little more than the rest of us."

"She is important," Mars replied, chastened.

"Of course she is," Neptune nodded. "You don't have to be omniscient to know that." Then she glanced at Mars with a impish smirk. "Kind of cute, too - - don't you think?"

Mars felt her cheeks burning again. "I don't know why I talk to you," the senshi muttered and stormed off ahead. She entered a juncture and turned right.

Ahead of her were several security guards she immediately recognized as androids. Just as immediately they recognized her as human and an intruder.

continued in Chapter 11


	11. The Destiny Of Humanity

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 11: "The Destiny of Humanity"

by Bill K.

"So what do you think of all this android stuff?" Jupiter asked Venus as they examined a receiving dock in the complex Viluy had infiltrated and taken over.

"Machines that can be human better than humans?" Venus scoffed. "I want to meet the machine that can be better at being me than I am."

"But think about it," Jupiter persisted. "There was no way you could tell those security guards that charged us were fakes. And that Viluy android - - and the Ami android at the shrine." Jupiter swallowed. "It's just - - spooky."

"This whole caper is spooky," Venus remarked as she examined a storage bin. "Viluy's dead, but she's not dead. Is Ami in the future, is she in the present, is she even still alive? People getting replaced by mechanical duplicates." She glanced over at Jupiter and spotted the senshi meticulously brushing dirt off of her glove. That brought a familiar smile to the blonde senshi's face. "Obviously you haven't been replaced."

Jupiter spotted her looking at the woman brushing her gloves and immediately stopped.

"I am NOT a neat freak, Blondie," Jupiter huffed. "Besides, I can tell they haven't replaced you, either. I can still hear your head rattle."

Venus responded with a playful eyelid pull.

"Where is everybody?" Jupiter wondered.

"She's probably only got people she can trust working here," Venus surmised as she examined a receiving log. "Or only androids work here and she fired all the workers. No, that would cause a stir. She may have just given them layoffs or extended vacation to get them out of the way. According to this log, they still get deliveries regularly."

"Of what?"

"Electronics and machine parts mostly. Probably to build their maniacal robot army of doom!"

"Beats me why the film industry hasn't jumped on you yet," smirked Jupiter.

"Me too," Venus said in earnest.

Battle-honed senses caused Jupiter and Venus to turn simultaneously. Each senshi spotted a group of dock workers advancing menacingly on them.

"Are they real?" Jupiter asked.

"Doubt it," Venus scowled. "We can't chance it either way."

"Right!" Jupiter nodded. Her tiara extended its lightning rod, but Venus's hand on her forearm stopped her.

"Remember last time," Venus warned. "Better let me handle it." Jupiter stepped back behind Sailor Venus. "Venus! Love and Beauty Shock!"

An expanding circle of golden energy exploded from Sailor Venus. It tracked across the dock and slammed into the dock workers with the force of a bomb. The workers were thrown against the wall like rag dolls and slumped to the floor. Jupiter hurried over and knelt down next to the nearest one while Venus kept her hand extended, ready to use her Crescent Beam should the fallen foe still have some fight. Jupiter pressed her hand to the man's neck.

"No pulse," she said.

"I didn't hit him THAT hard!" Venus replied.

"I know. Look at his chest. He's - - it's still breathing."

"Damn fakes," Venus muttered.

- - - -  
The moment she realized there was another entity on her ledge less than a meter from her, Sailor Mercury turned and fired. As she did, she realized that the shot was going to go wide and miss the target. She also realized that it was the last attack she'd be able to make for a while. A momentary realization asked if she'd have the time to recover?

A shadow shrouded by the thick fog Mercury had earlier conjured up lifted a long, thin weapon up into the air. All fear drained out of Mercury. She realized that the androids weren't carrying weapons. A new player had entered the contest, a fact confirmed by her visor readout. This player was human, though not a human she'd ever scanned before.

For a moment, it seemed like the entire world stilled to a hush. Mercury wondered if she were imagining it or if she'd momentarily lost her hearing.

"Chronos Typhoon!" came a clarion call of a voice, a voice Mercury recognized to her infinite relief.

The air seemed to pulse with a burst of energy that Mercury experienced rather than felt. With a swirl of cascading air, her fog dissipated. She could see the last android on their right, hands dug into the side of the rocky incline, poised to leap at them. However, it was being buffeted by a whirlwind of invisible energy. To her amazement, Mercury watched the skin on the machine decay and rot away before her very eyes. In different places along the exposed metal skeleton and synthetic musculature, wires began to pop, brittle from age. Circuitry sizzled and spat or merely gave up and died. Gleaming metallic joints corroded and rusted away. In a matter of almost a minute the android disintegrated from age before her very eyes.

She turned, astounded, to Sailor Pluto and received almost a timid smile in return.

"Sailor Mercury," Pluto nodded respectfully. "I am heartened that you are well."

"Pluto?" Mercury gasped incredulously. "H-How did you do that? It's as if that android aged a thousand years before my eyes!"

"The entropy that ultimately fells everything in this world is the dominion of time, if of anything," Sailor Pluto replied ominously. "Time is the dominion which I guard."

"You're the Pluto of the future!" Mercury gasped, realizing the truth. "Clearly your level of power has increased from what I know of you if you can accelerate the effects of time on a localized area." Another realization struck her and she looked up at Pluto with an intense stare. "Are you pursuing Yui - - um, Viluy?"

"I am," Pluto nodded. "And you surmise correctly, I am a Sailor Pluto from a future far distant from your current place in the time stream. This woman, Viluy, has brought about chaos in her single-minded pursuit of her goals. She has interfered in the time stream and changed the past so that a horrible present such as this has gone from a road not taken to a pathway to destruction for all. And she has managed to close off the path to the future we both hold dear."

Mercury sagged against the rock face of the ledge. Her legs refused to hold her up and she sank numbly.

"Then it's true," she gasped, barely holding back tears. "Sailor Moon and the others are gone. Crystal Tokyo is in ashes. That bright, shining future I visited will never be. Chibi-Usa will never . . ."

"Calm yourself, Sailor Mercury," Pluto said, squatting down next to her. "All is not lost. I have seen everything this Viluy has done, for I am the guardian of time and it is my duty to see. It is also my duty to act. For all of her genuine brilliance, Viluy is still a novice in the ways of time. I am not and I have the power to act upon what I have seen."

Mercury looked up at her, hope flowering again within her.

"I have woven a very delicate, but very encompassing web around our foe," Pluto told her. "And I have acted to repair the damage she has done." Pluto smiled proudly. "This time we both currently inhabit is no longer real."

"What?" gasped Mercury. "Is that possible?"

"For those who travel the eddies of the time stream, yes. Consider this a path that once was connected with a road. I have severed that connection. The path still exists, but it comes from nowhere and leads to nothing. The road your time now travels is again the one which leads to the future you once visited."

Pluto observed Mercury was only half-listening. Her mind was at the same time pondering the chronological physics implied in what Pluto told her. The senshi of time smiled to herself.

"Then you're saying this is a type of pocket universe?" Mercury struggled to postulate. "A place in time and space that exists in and of itself?"

"Yes," Pluto nodded.

"Yet you imply that it can be reached by time travelers. Therefore, logically, it must be somehow connected with the time/space phenomenon we entered through the Door of Time." Mercury felt Pluto's hand on her forearm.

"You may ponder this new conundrum at your leisure once this fight is done," Pluto told her. "But for the now, it is past time we were leaving."

Sailor Pluto raised her staff and gave it a quarter turn. Invisible energy seemed to engulf them both and in seconds Mercury and Pluto were gone.

Below the ledge, staring up with a mixture of anger and anxiety, Viluy stood.

She had heard every word.  
- - - -  
Confronted with the forward surge of five androids, Sailor Mars froze for the merest second in surprise. Then her instincts kicked into gear and she brought her hands up to invoke her "Burning Mandala". But Sailor Neptune hadn't surrendered to surprise and surged ahead of her.

"Deep Submerge!" Neptune called out. A wave of water sprang up from nowhere and engulfed the androids, carrying them down the hall and buffeting them against the walls and each other. Those not injured by the impact with the walls suffered damage to their internal circuitry as the water seeped into them through any opening.

"I would have gotten them," Mars groused.

"I merely saved you the trouble," Neptune replied in a way that hinted that the point wasn't worth arguing about. "Now what do you suppose they needed five androids to guard, hmm?"

The green-tressed senshi walked through the scattered androids up to a door. Mars followed, casting a wary eye at the fallen machines for signs of life. When they arrived at the door, though, they found it locked with a keycard entry system.

"Now I'm really curious," Neptune joked. "Do you think you can do something with this lock, Mars?"

The senshi stared at it for a few moments, turning over possibilities in her mind. Then she settled on a course of action and nodded. Backing up a few steps and signaling for Neptune to do the same, Mars jammed her hand down to her side.

"Mars!" she shouted. "Flame Sniper!"

The flaming bow and arrow grew into her hands as Sailor Mars pulled back the bowstring. With an unshakable calm born of confidence, the senshi aimed at the lock and fired. Her flame arrow shot across the hall and passed through the lock at almost supersonic speed. It severed the bolt and the momentum of the arrow pushed the door out slightly. Neptune nodded a compliment to Mars, then pulled the door open. Pleased with herself, Mars followed her fellow senshi inside.

She no sooner gained entry to the room than she stopped. Eyes popping, Sailor Mars looked around the room. Dimly she heard Sailor Neptune.

"Everyone, home in on my signal!" Neptune barked into her senshi communicator. "Get down here, now"  
- - - -  
"Usako," Tuxedo Mask said softly as his hands gently grasped the shuddering upper torso of Sailor Moon. He didn't have to see if she was crying - - he could tell by the way she was huddled against the wall.

"I'm sorry for crying," Sailor Moon squeaked, ashamed to let Tuxedo Mask see her tears. "But to see Ami - - perverted into someone's plaything, even if it's just a copy of her," and sobs overtook her again.

"I know," her future mate whispered, his grip giving her the strength not to dissolve completely.

"It's not right," she sobbed. "It's not right that someone can do that. It's not right that someone can take another human being and turn them into a-a doll for them to play with. Ami has a mind and a brain and feelings! She's not a plaything!"

"Usako," Tuxedo Mask said, turning her to face him. "Desperate people do desperate things. That android is a symbol of Viluy's contempt for other people and their rights as human beings - - but it's also a symbol of Viluy's need for love and companionship and acceptance. She may have done it because she didn't care who else it would hurt. But she may have done it because she didn't know any other way to get what she needed."

"But Mamo-chan, it's wrong," Sailor Moon persisted.

"I'm not saying it's not. I'm just saying - - if I couldn't have you, but I could have an exact duplicate of you, I might take it. It wouldn't be the same as having you, not by any means, but it might help me get through the rest of my days."

Sailor Moon looked down and eventually nodded. However Tuxedo Mask could tell she wasn't convinced.

Maybe that was a good thing.

"Everyone, home in on my signal!" they heard Sailor Neptune bark over Sailor Moon's communicator. "Get down here, now!"

Sailor Moon's eyes went wide with alarm. She and Tuxedo Mask broke into a run down the corridor. After two junctions, they met up with Luna and Artemis.

"Luna, what do you think it is?" Sailor Moon asked.

"In this chamber of horrors? That's hard to imagine!" Luna replied. "Hopefully it's nothing worse! Oh, Sailor Moon, the ghastly things Artemis and I have seen! This Viluy is an utter monster!"

Sailor Moon found herself nodding, against her better nature.

"Maybe they found Ami," Artemis suggested.

"I hope it's the real one," Sailor Moon sighed. Luna glanced curiously at her.

Approaching the signal, the quartet found the corridor littered with broken android bodies amid puddles of water. Acrid smoke filled the air.

"Well I'd say Mars and Neptune have been busy," Artemis commented as the four picked their way through the wreckage.

At once Sailor Moon screeched in alarm as something closed around her ankle. Looking down, the broken torso of an android had reached out and grabbed her. Before she could do anything else, though, Tuxedo Mask used his walking stick to knock the torso and hand away. The three looked to Sailor Moon, who was trembling and on the verge of shock. Just then Sailor Venus popped her head out the door.

"Artemis!" she gasped. "Get in here! You've got to see this!"

Forcing herself along, Sailor Moon followed the others as they ventured through the security door and into the large room it guarded. She heard Artemis gasp in surprise.

The room had a forty foot ceiling and ran nearly the length of the complex. In it was a huge assembly line. The line was entirely roboticized, automated to carry newly wired android torsos down one line, heads down another and limbs down a third. Once the central nervous system was attached through the skeleton, a complex series of artificial muscles was attached along the assembly line.

Overhead, lines of preformed outer shells were carried to their destination. The shells were clear plastic that mimicked human skin once a thin sheet of foam coating was applied. As the androids passed along the assembly line, robot arms attached limbs, welded muscles into place and encased the muscles in the plastic, which was then heat-seamed into place.

As the senshi walked through the assembly plant, they were ignored by the automation. It continued doing its job as if they weren't there.

"How many do you think they're turning out at a time?" Mars asked, amazed by what she saw.

"It looks like optimum output at the moment is ten androids an hour," Artemis judged. "At that rate, working round the clock, they could have two hundred and forty produced per day."

"So how long have they been at this?" Jupiter asked ominously.

"They could already have enough to overrun Tokyo!" Venus exclaimed.

"Except that we don't know how long it takes to specify an android's appearance or to program them to replace a human," Artemis cautioned. "These are all generic humanoid units. They might be going into storage for now."

"There's some at the end of the room," Neptune pointed out. The group headed for them. As they neared, they all saw a group of androids, both male and female, with specific features and hair styles. Each one was lifeless and frozen into position. It was almost like viewing the dead.

"Are they supposed to be somebody?" Venus asked.

"Yes," Tuxedo Mask said, pointing to an older looking android. "That's Dietman Toguro."

"Is that her game?" Luna asked. "Replace key members of the Japanese government with her android duplicates?"

"Perhaps," Neptune replied with a cocked eyebrow, "although I'm inclined to think its more than that. Some of these androids we don't recognize may be key leaders in the business and financial centers of Japan."

"Didn't I say that?" Venus asked, looking at Jupiter. "No, don't listen to Venus! She watches too many monster movies!"

"Control government and the business sector," Tuxedo Mask summed up. "Use that to funnel more money and resources into android production, expanding the replacement to other countries until you've locked up the entire world. Then, from a position of superior strength, turn the androids loose on the population. But to what end - - enslavement?"

"I'll try to remember to ask her later," Venus scowled. "Right now I say we trash this place!"

"I agree with Venus," Neptune said. She turned to Sailor Moon, expecting an argument. Mars and Jupiter glanced over, too, because they wanted to side with Neptune and Venus.

"It's the only thing we can do," Sailor Moon replied, her expression haunted. "We can't let this go any further."

"I don't believe any of you have a say in it!" they all heard from the catwalks above the assembly line.

As one the senshi looked up. Ringing the assembly line area on the overhead catwalks were a dozen Viluys. Each one was armed with a deadly-looking rifle. Each rifle was trained on the senshi, with four specifically targeting Sailor Moon.

continued in Chapter 12


	12. The Once And Future Viluy

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter 12: "The Once And Future Viluy"

by Bill K.

"I'll try to remember to ask her later," Venus scowled. "Right now I say we trash this place!"

"I agree with Venus," Neptune said. She turned to Sailor Moon, expecting an argument. Mars and Jupiter glanced over, too, because they wanted to side with Neptune and Venus.

"It's the only thing we can do," Sailor Moon replied, her expression haunted. "We can't let this go any further."

"I don't believe any of you have a say in it!" they all heard from the catwalks above the assembly line.

As one the senshi looked up. Ringing the assembly line area on the overhead catwalks were a dozen Viluys. Each one was armed with a deadly-looking rifle. Each rifle was trained on the senshi, with four specifically targeting Sailor Moon.

"Please," Sailor Moon said, separating herself from the group, though Mars and Jupiter shadowed her so they could be in a position to defend her. She looked up at the ring of Viluys, focusing on the Viluy immediately in front of her. Her hands were extended out from her body in supplication. "Please stop this."

"And why would I do that?" the Viluys asked in eerie unison.

"Can't you see how many people you're hurting?" Sailor Moon appealed to her.

"Perhaps this escaped you," the Viluys scowled sarcastically, "but the goal of this plan has been to eliminate the human race. That would involve hurting them."

"But why? Why would you want to eliminate every person in the world?"

"Because humanity is a flawed, emotion-driven cancer on this planet," the Viluys replied with such human contempt and loathing it was hard to tell which one was the real one. "It has reached its evolutionary apex and, like the dinosaurs before it, must make way for the next dominant species."

"That," gasped Sailor Moon, "that's so cold!"

"Logic is cold. Deal with it. Name one positive aspect of humanity's current existence on this planet."

"Babies," Sailor Moon replied. "The purity and innocence they possess remind us of our better sides. Do machines have that? The capacity humans have to create, whether it's a fantastic new invention or a wonderful piece of art or music, or life itself. Can logic do that? The ability of two people to fall in love, for love makes everything better. Love enriches us more than logic ever could. Can't you see? What you want to create isn't a better race - - it's a more narrow one, a more limited one."

As she spoke, the senshi all stared at her, either awed by her articulate argument or inspired by her unassuming passion. If ever for a moment any of them doubted they were on the wrong side, that doubt was gone for good.

"Sentimental rubbish," sneered the Viluys. "You conveniently leave out the mirror images of those 'lofty aspects of humanity' you so passionately speak of. You forget the selfishness and petulance of your treasured infants. You leave out the human desire for gain that perverts so many of their 'creations' into trinkets to be sold to fawning, gullible idiots. And you neglect to consider how fragile 'love' is and how it can turn into hatred, sometimes with just the slightest nudge. But then one of humanity's greatest talents has always been patting itself on the back. In the world I envision, science and discovery will be all, unencumbered by sentimentality or pettiness or other emotions bred from humans."

"But you're human!" Sailor Moon argued.

"Am I?" the Viluys replied. "Or am I the evolutionary link between species? Am I the bridge between the end of one species and the start of another? How many humans can match my intellect? How many have my emotional control? I could probably count them on one hand. So how 'human' am I really?"

"Mars," Jupiter whispered unobtrusively, "which one do you think is the real one?"

"None of them," Mars replied surreptitiously. "They're all androids."

"Then why have you been letting Sailor Moon waste her time trying to appeal to their human nature?"

"Because the real Viluy might be listening through them. Because right now we could use a miracle - - and who's always been our chief source of miracles over the years? I'm going to let her play her hand. If it doesn't work - - then we improvise." Jupiter nodded.

"You're as human as you want to be, Viluy," Sailor Moon said. "As human as you'll let yourself be. I know something must have happened in your past to make you afraid to trust people enough to let you love them. It doesn't really matter now. You can trust me. I don't want to hurt you, Viluy. I only want to stop you from making a horrible mistake, one you'll regret for the rest of your life. It's not too late, Viluy. You haven't gone too far. Please. Please stop this and be my friend."

The Viluy android she was directly facing stared down at her. Her lip curled into a sneer and she squeezed the trigger of her weapon.

"GET DOWN!" Mars and Jupiter screamed together, knocking Sailor Moon to the floor.

At once Mars cried out, the energy beam clipping her along the left calf. Tuxedo Mask had four roses out, prepared to take out four androids. Sailor Neptune had the Deep Aqua Mirror out, ready to cut down as many androids as she could before the odds finally got her. Sailor Venus had her hand to her side, moments from speaking her power phrase and launching her Love And Beauty Shock attack, while the cats were ready to move.

"Dead Scream," echoed a voice. A burst of white noise exploded along the catwalk. It slammed into the androids with concussive force, flailing them into pieces.

Sailor Mercury and Sailor Pluto looked to each other and nodded in satisfaction. Then they turned their gaze to their teammates below.

"MARS!" Sailor Moon wailed.

She'd extricated herself from the pile of bodies on top of her. Mars was holding her left leg, trying to stop the bleeding from a deep gash while Jupiter looked on in horror. The pale look on the face of the senshi of fire said volumes about her distaste at seeing her own blood. Quickly Tuxedo Mask knelt down beside her and took the leg in his hands. Venus and Neptune guarded the perimeter, eyes sharp for any new threat.

"Here, we can use this to stop the bleeding," he said, removing his cummerbund and wrapping it around her leg. "Hopefully the wound won't need stitches, but I can't rule it out."

"Oh, great," Mars almost sobbed. "Just what I need - - a scar on my leg!"

"OH MARS, PLEASE DON'T DIE!" Sailor Moon wailed, wrapping her arms around Sailor Mars' throat from behind.

"IF YOU START CRYING, I SWEAR I'LL SLAP YOU!" fumed Mars.

"WELL EXCUSE ME FOR CARING!" Sailor Moon bellowed back, though she refused to release her choke hold on Sailor Mars.

"She won't die," Tuxedo Mask told her.

"Unless you choke me to death, Ditz!" Mars added. Tuxedo Mask smoothed the cummerbund in place along her calf and tied it off. Mars smiled gratefully at him. "You still have a soft touch, Mamoru."

"MY soft touch!" Sailor Moon snapped, releasing Mars so she could grab Tuxedo Mask's hands away jealously. Mars replied with her tongue, which Sailor Moon mimicked.

"Well, I guess this proves I'm back home again," Sailor Mercury smiled, standing about ten feet from the group. Sailor Pluto was a few feet behind her.

"Ami?" Sailor Moon gasped, tears welling again. "AMI, YOU'RE BACK!"

Sailor Moon flew to her feet and tackled Sailor Mercury, the force of her momentum spilling both of them onto the floor. She hugged the girl, crying deliriously, while Jupiter, Venus and Neptune gathered behind them and Mars and Tuxedo Mask looked on from a distance.

"Oh, we were so worried about you!" sobbed Sailor Moon. "Are you all right?"

"I am now," Mercury beamed.

"Are you really you?" Sailor Moon asked uneasily.

"Yes, I'm really me." Mercury sobered. "But our work isn't finished. Not until we've found Yui."

"And not until we've done something about this," Venus said. She looked around at the assembly line. It was still going, in spite of the battle just fought, the automation blithely ignoring them all. "Venus!" she snapped, jabbing her hand to her side. "Love And Beauty Shock!"

An energy shockwave arced out from Venus along the floor of the assembly line. It impacted with the assembly line on the floor of the room and tore through it like a tornado through a tree trunk. Metal splintered and sheared, gears crumbled, supports buckled and robotic arms and the android skeletons they were assembling were flayed to pieces. Venus surveyed the destruction with grim satisfaction.

"Submarine Reflection!" Neptune's voice echoed through the room over the destruction Venus was wrecking.

Spitting out from the Deep Aqua Mirror was a beam of energy. Lancing up to the ceiling, it carved up the overhead carriers and the parts they were carrying. Neptune sliced and diced,turning the plastic shells and the hooks and conveyors that carried them into bite-size chunks. Severed electrical systems sparked and spat, raining super-hot particles onto the floor and further damaging the assembly line below.

"Mercury!" Mercury shouted, acting quickly despite her fatigue. "Aqua Rhapsody!"

With that shouted phrase, Mercury quickly inundated the involved area in a sea of icy water. Her aim was two-fold and ever pragmatic - - she would flood the area, further shorting out the electronics of the assembly line while her icy flood prevented any of the sparks Neptune and Venus had thrown up to ignite into a flash fire.

Woozy, Mercury sagged and was quickly caught by Sailor Moon. Everyone on their feet crowded around her with concern, while Mars looked on.

"Mercury?" Sailor Moon gasped.

"I'm all right," she panted. "Just pushed myself to my limits. It's nothing that going home and soaking in a hot tub for an hour won't cure."

Suddenly Mars' head turned, as if she alone could sense something. Her movement was noticed by the ever-observant Sailor Neptune. Mars locked onto a figure skulking along the wall of the assembly room.

"Look out!" Mars yelled suddenly. "She's the real one! Mars!" she snapped as everyone ducked. "Flame Sniper!"

Her flaming bow was out and drawn, an arrow ready to shoot the weapon from the hand of yet another Viluy. But Sailor Moon gestured and momentarily stayed her hand. She had no shot anyway when Mercury moved between them. Mercury and Viluy stared intently at each other. No one else in the room mattered.

"You think I won't kill you, Mizuno?" Viluy snarled bitterly.

"I think you don't want to," Mercury replied with a hint of disgust. "You've certainly had enough chances."

"I should," Viluy snapped. "I should have done it the moment I took you! You've ruined everything! EVERYTHING! You and your precious senshi!"

"You're such a waste, Yui," Mercury declared. "All that intellect and yet you're so ignorant you can't even see the basic flaw in you that destroys everything you touch."

"Then enlighten me, Mizuno!" Viluy sneered. "Tell me how I can be saved by embracing the gospel according to Sailor Moon! Tell me how I'm a wayward sinner and I can only reach enlightenment through her holy guidance! Sing to me about that new age religion!"

"This is your idea of logic and emotional control?" Mercury asked her. "Tell me one thing, Yui. How is such a logical creation as you postulate supposed to be born from an irrational, paranoid, delusional borderline psychotic such as yourself? Diagram that logic for me, Yui, because I just can't see it."

"That presupposes that your assumptions about my mental state are accurate," Viluy smiled irrationally.

"Stop avoiding the question," Mercury countered. "How is a machine supposed to dominate its environment solely on logic? Imagination is needed to bring about any progress beyond accident and happenstance. And imagination is more closely associated with emotions than with logic. Emotions such as ambition, desire, envy . . ."

"Stop it!" roared Viluy. "Humanity is no good! They're not worthy of us!"

The woman stared desperately at Mercury, the weapon wavering in her hand. She seemed to be trying to communicate with Mercury on as many levels as possible.

"Why can't you see it, Mizuno?" she cried. "Why?"

"I see it," Mercury replied softly. "I just can't accept it."

Viluy's face twisted up into a swirl of bitterness and rage, heartbreak and loss. She seemed about a millisecond away from firing. Everyone tensed to act.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss," Sailor Moon's gentle voice wafted out over the room.

The Moon Tier was out and extended over her head. It was radiating waves of soft, supple warmth. To the other senshi it felt like the gentle caress of a mother's hand on a cheek. What then did it feel like to Viluy, who let the weapon fall to her side at she stared up at the gleaming jewel in the headpiece of the tier. Her mouth dropped and she looked up at it with childlike wonder.

"We want to help you, Viluy," Sailor Moon said softly. "You don't have to hate. You don't have to be afraid. Let me help you. Let me be your friend. Let us all be your friends."

"A-Ami?" Viluy whispered, staring up at the crystal like it was her heart's desire.

"Love is so much warmer than hate," Sailor Moon said, pouring her soul at Viluy through the crystal. "Surrender to your love."

"NO!" Viluy wailed, her face twisting in desperate rage. "YOU DON'T TRAP ME THAT WAY!"

Firing wildly, Viluy pivoted as the senshi fell back defensively. Mars fired at the fleeing villain, but in an instant Viluy was swallowed by a dazzling field of energy. The arrow passed harmlessly through the air where she had been.

Before anyone else could act, Sailor Pluto extended her staff, talisman end first at the point where Viluy had been. The ruby end of her staff began to glow, casting bizarre and horrific patterns on Pluto's impassive face. The senshi of time seemed to gather herself.

"Tempus Occlusion!" Pluto demanded.

A slit in the very fabric of reality suddenly illuminated, looking like a gaping, festering wound. It emitted a ghastly yellow-green light until bathed in the radiation from the Ruby Orb. Maroon and black swirled around the gash, stitching, weaving, healing the wound in the fabric of time and space until everything faded to normal. Then Sailor Pluto retracted her staff and turned to Sailor Moon.

"Where did she go?" Sailor Moon asked.

"Back to a fantasy, My Princess, along a road that now no longer exists." Pluto glanced at Sailor Mercury, for only Mercury truly understood what she meant. "My work here is ended." Pluto smiled, grateful it seemed that Sailor Moon would deign to even listen to her. She bowed respectfully. "With your leave, My Princess." She bowed to Tuxedo Mask. "Your Majesty."

And with another swirl of ruby energy, Sailor Pluto was gone.

"What?" Sailor Venus said incredulously, "that's it?" Artemis rolled his eyes.

"Not quite," Mercury replied sadly.

- - - -  
Dietman Hino sat in the office of Mr. Tanaka reviewing the first draft legislation they'd given him. Tanaka and a pair of lesser executives, one from production and one from marketing,,sat watching him expectantly. Hino disliked being watched so intently while he read. It made it difficult to read the draft objectively. They were clearly counting heavily on this legislation to get their android project off the ground, so it was difficult to gauge how they would react to any criticism he might have.

Hino still didn't feel right about this. Dietman Toguro did, but all that old walrus could see were the campaign contributions and the power it brought. Hino knew that Toguro was aging and was beginning to fear for his power base. One day Toguro would be toppled. They both knew it. But until that time came, Hino had to be a dutiful soldier and obey. Otherwise he'd be inviting Toguro's wrath and no ambitious politician wanted that.

"There are a few minor points on this I'd like to review with my staff," Hino said finally, treading carefully. "The overall legislation looks workable, but I just want to check on the constitutionality of a few points to make it challenge-proof."

"Would that take long?" Tanaka asked with unusual anxiety.

"Hopefully not," Hino replied. "We'll give it our full attention to expedite things."

"Good," he nodded. "Forgive me if I seem insistent about this, but this is a very important project and I want to get started on it as soon as possible. When can I expect an answer?"

"Um," Hino frowned. He didn't like being rushed or pinned down, but was a master at concealing it by now. "End of the week at most, but it's possible we could be finished sooner."

It wasn't what Tanaka wanted to hear, but he smiled anyway.

"By Friday then," he said, rising up to bow to Hino. Hino rose to do the same, as did the junior executives.

Suddenly, though, there was a din from the outer office. The men turned to the sound of raised voices, then what sounded like a scuffle. Just then the door burst open, revealing to Hino's amazement Sailor Jupiter and his own daughter, Sailor Mars. Mars spotted him as she entered. Anger flared in her eyes, then her face froze in unconcealed contempt.

"How many, Mars?" Jupiter prompted.

"See here!" Tanaka roared angrily. "What is the meaning of bursting into a private conference! Get out before I call security!"

"Just one," Mars said.

She pressed one of her wards to her forehead while softly chanting the mystic phrase that invoked its power. As her father stared in amazement, Sailor Mars let fly. The ward resisted the pull of gravity and the resistance of the air, flying straight and true. It struck Mr. Tanaka squarely between the eyes. The man arched back as if slapped, then hovered, frozen in position. Hino and the junior executives turned back to the two senshi.

"What did you do to Tanaka-sempei?" the marketing executive angrily demanded. He was too furious to see Jupiter's tiara extend its lightning rod until the air began to tingle with electricity.

"SUPREME THUNDER!" Jupiter bellowed, calling down lightning from the heavens, then projecting it directly at the frozen Tanaka. The bolt struck him square and Tanaka exploded into bits. The three men were horrified by what they thought was bold murder. Then they saw the remains gleamed of chrome and plastic and sparked of severed electrical connections and their horror mutated into delirious shock. Unable to speak, unable to even comprehend what he'd just seen, Dietman Hino turned to his estranged daughter for some explanation.

"Still selling your soul for political gain, I see," Mars replied bitterly. Glancing at her father one more time as if he were something that had crawled up from under the ground, Mars turned and left, followed by Sailor Jupiter.

concluded in Chapter 13


	13. Goin' To The Chapel

BLINDED BY SCIENCE

Chapter13: "Goin' To the Chapel . . ."

by Bill K.

Ami walked up the steps of Hikawa Shrine with a steady gait. Dressed in her usual bland, safe white blouse and dark skirt, from which she would change into the pink off the shoulder bridesmaid dress that Usagi had picked out for them, the girl was lost in thought. For one thing,the thought of appearing in public in such an ensemble made her quite uncomfortable. She only agreed to wear it so as not to offend Usagi, but the idea of wearing an off the shoulder dress made her cringe.

"Still, it's a step up from being in a plastic cube in just my bra and panties," Ami mused.

That's what really dominated her thoughts: memories of her captivity at the hands of Viluy and of Viluy herself. The woman was barreling down a path of self-loathing destruction and because of that was clearly a threat, both to the world and to Ami. But she kept thinking that, given a way to reach her, that Viluy could be turned to good. That is what Usagi always believed, that everyone had some good in them and as a, one might say, disciple of Usagi's she wasn't wrong to think it.

Or was she? Was she clinging to that hope for another, less concrete reason?

A dark shape rose up and wrapped around Ami, jerking her from her thoughtful reverie. It took a moment for her to realize it was Rei who had her in a gigantic hug. When she let go, Ami saw the genuine concern in her friend's face.

"I felt you approaching," Rei shrugged in anticipation of Ami's query. "How are you doing? You look like you're dealing with some pretty deep stuff."

"Just thinking about Yui," Ami admitted. Rei seemed confused. "Viluy - - her real name is Yui Bidou. She's been bothering me for a while now."

"First name basis?" whistled Minako as she and Makoto approached. "Just what went on during your 'captivity'?"

"Oh, put a sock in it!" Rei snapped.

"Yeah, don't pay 'tabloid brain' here any mind, Ames," Makoto said. She gathered Ami up in a bear hug and squeezed gratefully.

"Scoff if you two wish," sniffed Minako. "I saw the way Viluy was looking at Ami. That woman had the hots for our quiet little heartbreaker here." Makoto gave her an impatient look.

"Actually," Ami began, blushing involuntarily, "I've reasonably certain that Minako's not that far off - - in a way." She paused while Rei and Makoto gaped at her. "Despite her pronounced disdain for my 'weaker characteristics', Yui time and again expressed a good deal of admiration for me as well. I'm one of the few people she sees as a peer - - possibly the only one."

"But that doesn't mean she," Makoto stammered, "um, you know."

"We're all searching for love and approval, Makoto. It's part of being human, whether we deny it or not. Yui is no different, except that she values the approval of so few that it's hard to acquire it. Looking back on her behavior, I can't help but wonder if, on some level, it was all designed to impress me. Yui wants love and approval, but she doesn't know how to give it in return and she ends up committing misanthropic acts for the gentlest of reasons. If we could only find a way to reach her long enough to modify such anti-social behavior, I honestly think she could be resurrected as a useful member of society."

"Why do you care?" scowled Minako. "The woman kidnapped you, nearly killed us and tried to remake the world in her own image. She hasn't exactly earned a lot of sympathy points."

Ami sighed and looked down. "Because I could have been Yui. If I hadn't had the stern love of my mother or the gentle hand of my dad on my shoulder, I could have turned out just like her."

"Not you, Ami," Makoto shook her head resolutely. "You've got something Viluy will never have - - strength of character."

"But what creates strength of character, Makoto? Is it something we're born with or something shaped by our environment? If you somehow went back into time and switched Yui and myself at birth, would she be on her way to Oxford now - - and a senshi? Would I be a twisted, vindictive sociopath bent on destroying an entire species because I've never truly identified with it?" She swallowed self-consciously. "I suppose that's why I hope so fervently that Yui can be redeemed - - because that would mean there would be hope for me if I ever became like that."

"Don't worry, Ami," Minako grinned warmly. "If you ever decided to rule the world, all we'd have to do is say the word 'sex'. That'd stop you in your tracks."

Rei snickered in spite of herself while Makoto gave Minako a look that said "you're terrible for saying such a thing - - and I wish I'd thought of it". Ami rolled her eyes, but turned to hide the smile forming on her mouth.

"Ami!" they all heard Usagi squeal. Ami turned just in time to see Usagi run up. Her dear friend hugged her long and hard, to Ami's delight. Finally she pulled away and gripped Ami's arms. "Are you going to be OK?"

"Watching you get married?" Ami smiled. "How could I not?"

"Ohhhhh!" Usagi said, threatening to start bawling right there. "I am so going to miss you when you go to England!"

"Now don't start that," clucked Rei. "Your makeup will start running."

"I got the waterproof eyeliner, just in case," Usagi grinned sheepishly.

"We'll say our good-byes when the time comes," Ami told her. "This is too happy an occasion to concern ourselves with partings. Is everyone else here?"

"I saw Haruka and Michiru just now," Usagi said. "Haruka's flight from Milan just landed. She looks like she's had about ten minutes sleep. In fact I've spotted everybody except Setsuna." Rei and Minako exchanged a curious glance at that bit of news.

Setsuna paused by the cherry tree near where the others were congregated. She could see the bride and her gathering friends. She hoped they couldn't see her. Setsuna was no longer sure she belonged in their company. Ami's head momentarily bobbed into view, smiling and joyous. Setsuna felt her heart sing that the girl was safe and among them again. Seeing that made it worth it. Usagi popped into view and once more Setsuna felt buoyed by the girl's smile. Usagi was so happy, happier than Setsuna could ever remember seeing her. And Setsuna knew no greater joy than seeing her princess happy.

Then Rei turned and looked directly at Setsuna, like the miko had sensed her presence. For a moment, anger flashed on the dark girl's face, along with a silent accusation. Then that look washed away, replaced by one of guilt and confusion, for Setsuna was a teammate. Would her conflict be mirrored in the others? Would Setsuna's presence put a damper on this happy occasion?

Perhaps she should go. Setsuna turned away with a heavy heart.

"Setsuna!"

Turning back, she saw Usagi running toward her. The others were following at a calmer pace. Setsuna wanted to flee, but to run from the princess would be the ultimate insult to her and she couldn't do that. Instead she took in a steadying breath and prepared for the worst.

"Setsuna?" Usagi asked, timid and confused. "You are coming to my wedding, aren't you?"

"I," she began, then looked down, searching for words. "I was uncertain I would be welcome." As she finished, she glanced at Rei. Rei looked down in shame.

"Of course you're welcome!" cried Usagi. "Setsuna, you're my friend! You have to be here! Why would you think you wouldn't be welcome?"

"I," Setsuna stammered, "did nothing to aid you in your search for Ami - - nothing to aid in your battle against Viluy and her androids." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Minako glance away uncomfortably.

"I'm sure you had very good reasons, Setsuna," Usagi replied with the earnest innocence of a saint. "I trust you. You're my friend. You wouldn't do anything to harm me or any of us."

"And what you said isn't entirely true," Ami added. "I know for a fact just how much you did to help me. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you - - and the dream we all fight for would be gone, too."

Setsuna smiled gratefully.

"Anyway, Ami's back and safe and that's all that matters," Usagi proclaimed. "Now come to my wedding - - please?"

A lump formed in Setsuna's throat. Truly she was in the presence of greatness. Her eyes misting, she reached out and took hold of Usagi's hand.

"It would be my honor," she choked out, noticing the warm smiles on Rei and Minako as well as Ami and Makoto, "my Princess. Thank you."

"No, Setsuna!" Usagi squealed, jumping up and hugging the woman. "Thank you!"

"And if you hurry, you just have time to get changed and get back," Minako added.

Setsuna looked at her, stunned. Then she looked down at her outfit, which consisted of a white blouse with a large green bow at the collar mimicking a bow-tie, a houndstooth jacket of black and white, and a green and white tartan knee-length skirt.

"My outfit is - - not acceptable?" Setsuna asked, perplexed.

Ami looked away uncomfortably. Rei suddenly got interested in the cloud patterns overhead. Makoto closed her eyes and grimaced, then reached over and smacked the back of Minako's head.

"Um," Usagi stuttered, "if, um, if you're comfortable with it . . ." and her voice trailed off.

"Forgive me, My Princess," Setsuna bowed. "I will change into more appropriate attire. I vow I will not miss your wedding."

Setsuna turned and hurried off. However, she wasn't quite out of earshot.

"This ought to be good for a few laughs," Minako said. Rei snickered involuntarily.

"Will you shut up," Makoto hissed.

"Hey, can I help it if she's fashion challenged?" Minako defended herself.

For a moment, Setsuna felt bad. Then she realized that, in their own way, they were trying to help. Perhaps she needed to consult Minako and Rei on what was and wasn't fashionable. After all, they always seemed to look good.

And suddenly Setsuna found Sailor Pluto walking beside her.

"The Princess is a remarkable woman, is she not?" Sailor Pluto said.

"Indeed," Setsuna nodded. They walked on for a few paces. "Is there new trouble? Or have you come to witness the wedding, too?"

"I already saw it once," Pluto replied and gave her a knowing smile. "I have come to explain to you why you could not act, so you may no longer be wracked with the guilt you feel."

"How kind of you," Setsuna scowled.

"A rebuke?" Pluto smirked. "What would Freud say to that?"

"Your explanation," Setsuna prompted.

"Very well. Had you participated with the others in the final battle against the androids, you would have died."

Setsuna turned and looked at Pluto with astonishment.

"And you would not have come into being," Setsuna continued the line of thinking. "Then all of this was an elaborate bid for - - for self-preservation?"

"What you say is true," Pluto nodded solemnly, "but your assumption behind your conclusion is inaccurate. I did not act out of selfishness."

Pluto stopped and turned to Setsuna, her expression grave.

"Setsuna, you are destined to play a vital role in the formation of Crystal Tokyo. I cannot tell you how or when, but you will. And if you died in this year, Crystal Tokyo would not have formed. I know this. I have seen it. And so, to remain true to the vow I took to Queen Serenity to protect her and the dream she works for, I took it upon myself to preserve that which she would need to see that dream take seed." Then Pluto gave her a playful smile. "Besides,  
Setsuna, I am quite fond of you."

Setsuna digested this. "Thank you, my future self. Your words are a help to me."

Pluto nodded, then raised her staff. But before she turned it to return to the Door Of Time, she glanced back at Setsuna with a wicked smile.

"And yes, you really should consult with Minako and Rei," Pluto told her. "That outfit is truly hideous."

Setsuna blushed while Pluto faded from view.  
- - - -  
It almost seemed to flash before their eyes like a will-o-the-wisp. One moment, four friends were waiting by the bride's door, fighting down nerves of anticipation. Then, seemingly in a blink of an eye, they were at the reception after the ceremony, sitting at a table watching the bride and groom sweep around the room in each other's arms to the waltz played by the hired band. Suddenly Minako began giggling again, drawing a baleful glare from Rei.

"It wasn't that funny, Blondie," huffed Makoto.

"Oh yes it was," Minako gasped out between chuckles. She glanced at Rei, still glaring at her, but refused to be brought to seriousness. In fact, the reverse happened. The corners of Rei's mouth twitched, then burst out in a rude snort of laughter.

"Rei!" Ami gasped in outrage.

"Come on, Ami, it was classic Usagi!" Rei laughed as Minako wiped tears from her eyes. "Grampa does the whole 'do you take this man' thing and turns to her - - and what does she say?"

"I dill!" howled Minako, holding her sides.

"And then she gets that look - - the same one she always got when she forgot there was a test - - and then says . . .!"

"I woo!" howled Minako. She and Rei collapsed against each other, laughing hysterically.

"Some friends you two are," Makoto scowled. "Isn't that right, Ami?

She glanced at her friend and suddenly became aghast.

"AMI!"

"I'm sorry," Ami twittered, covering her smile with her hand. "But once you get past the tragedy of it, you must admit that it's funny."

Makoto softened into a small smile. "I guess so. Aw, but Mamoru really saved it, didn't he? He reached out and took her hands and looked her right in the eye and said . . ."

"'She will'," Rei said happily. "I could have died right then and there."

Four girls bordering on womanhood sighed in unison.

"You four better not be talking about what I THINK you're talking about!" Usagi said,hovering over the four. She was still in her wedding gown, a brocaded white chiffon with long sleeves, puffed shoulders, a plunging neckline and tight bodice that flared out from the waist with a large floor-length skirt.

"Or else what?" chuckled Minako.

"Or I'll beat you with my bouquet!" Usagi replied with mock anger. Mamoru hovered in the background, enjoying the byplay.

"You dill?" needled Rei.

"SHUT UP, REI!"

"How many years did you practice that line, twinkle-tongue?"

Usagi scowled, reluctant to answer. "Eight," she said finally. Then she shoved her hand with the gold band on her third finger into the center of the table. "But I don't care! I've got the ring and I've got the man who goes with it!"

"Amen," nodded Makoto. "Now how about you two sit this dance out and let the other couples have a chance at the dance floor."

Usagi and the others motioned the bridegroom to sit beside them, but Mamoru begged off to talk to some of his college friends. Usagi took a seat. Instantly, though, she turned to Ami.

"Ami?" Usagi inquired, drawing the blush of apprehension from the girl. "Are you OK? You seem kind of down."

"It's nothing," Ami lied. "This is a happy time."

"You're not still thinking about being Viluy's captive, are you?" Makoto asked.

"Ami, it's OK! She's gone!" Usagi told her.

"Actually, I'm wondering about going to England," Ami admitted.

"I thought you were jazzed about going to Oxford," Minako wondered.

"I - - was. But - - this emergency has made me realize something," Ami said. "What if Sailor Mercury is needed?"

The table fell silent.

"Are we allowed to have normal lives?" Ami wondered. "Responsibilities come with the power and mission we were given. If I'm in England . . ."

"We'll handle it," Usagi said. She reached over and squeezed Ami's hand. "Yes, we're allowed to have normal lives. That's what we're fighting for."

"You can't be on duty twenty-four/seven, Ami," Minako added. "You've got to have something to go home to. Otherwise what were you fighting for?"

"We'll handle it, Ami," Usagi reiterated. "You're a valuable member of the team, but there are other members of the team, too. Setsuna has already told me she'll do anything she can to help out. And even though they won't admit it, I know I can count on Haruka and Michiru, too. Who knows, Chibi-Usa and her crew of Asteroids might just pop up. Go to England, Ami. Go and become the best doctor the world has ever seen - - well, second best behind Mamo-chan."

"Listen to her, Ami," Rei smiled. "She's already run this speech by me, so you know she's been practicing it." She glanced mischievously at Usagi. "And she didn't stumble once."

Usagi stuck out her tongue.

"But I feel guilty leaving you without my help," Ami confessed. "Particularly with Rei going to study for the priesthood now."

"Don't," Usagi smiled and you couldn't help but love her when she did that. "If you stay, you'll just be helping me. If you go and become a doctor, you'll be helping so many more people. It's the right thing."

Ami looked down and smiled. "I surrender to your logic, Usagi."

Minako started to open her mouth, but stopped when Makoto pointed at her. The blonde scowled, downed her cup of punch and excused herself. The others looked and saw Minako was headed for the handsome young man talking with Mamoru. Makoto turned around and folded her arms over her chest.

"How does she always manage to spot the hotties before me?" she fumed.

- - - -  
Haneda Airport, early September. Amid the boarding and departing passengers was a girl of eighteen, bound for England, and her parents. The mother, a lean woman of thirty-six with short, stylish black hair and a girlishly pretty face that hid the most piercing stare ever imagined, stood looking at her daughter. She was prim and stylish in her dark suit, handsomely tailored, and white blouse.

Next to her was a man, thirty-seven, with light sandy hair going prematurely gray. He had thick round glasses and a thick, burly frame, but the most sensitive hands and the most sensitive eyes and mouth. He was dressed casually, almost indifferently, wearing beige slacks, a light blue cotton sport shirt, deck shoes and a fisherman's twill hat. He made a stark contrast to the expensively tailored woman beside him, a fact she made a point of indicating to him. He didn't care. He only cared about important things and the girl before him was one of those important things.

The girl, Ami Mizuno, was dressed in a tweed skirt, white blouse and a dark sweater - - conservative to the end. She held a carry-on bag and looked up at her parents uncertainly. A voice in the back of her head pleaded for them to wrap their arms around her and refuse to let go until the huge plane waiting on the tarmac flew away and she'd be forced to stay here where it was safe and familiar. Another, more rational voice reminded her of the lure of the unknown, of new places and new experiences, of wonders yet to be discovered and puzzles yet to be solved. The girl in the middle, Ami, wanted to listen to both and didn't want to admit she couldn't.

"Oh, Ami," her mother sobbed, the rational doctor facade cracking and falling away to reveal the mother below. She hugged her daughter, crushing her to her bosom even as she struggled to regain control of her emotions.

"Mother," Ami whispered. "That's the first time I've seen you cry."

"Yes," Dr. Mizuno whimpered, "it's the first time you've seen it." She squeezed her daughter again. "I'm going to miss you so!"

"I will, too, Mother," Ami whispered back.

Dr. Mizuno felt the gentle hand of her ex-husband on her shoulder. For all his faults, and there was a long list of them in her mind, the gentle touch of his hand was one thing she would always remember fondly. It gave her the strength to let go of Ami.

"You've made me so proud, Ami," her father said, gathering her up and hugging her. "You've already accomplished more than I ever could have envisioned for you." He patted her on the back as he hugged her, rubbing between her shoulder blades. It was a familiar gesture that made her flash onto so many cherished memories. "Go for the record, Ami."

"I will," Ami smiled when her father released her.

The loudspeaker called the boarding of her flight to England. Ami took a last look at her parents. With a heavy heart, she turned, then caught a glimpse of Rei, Makoto and Minako watching her from the second floor railing. Usagi was still on her honeymoon, but the others had shown up to see her off. They'd said their good-byes before her time with her parents.  
Makoto waved, Minako flashed a 'v', and Rei merely nodded. And once again Ami had the overwhelming urge to tear up her ticket and stay forever in the company of family and friends.

However, the lure of the unexplored was just too great. Waving to them, Ami turned and resolutely headed for the boarding gate and her future at Oxford. Watching from the railing above, Makoto sighed.

"There she goes," the tall, striking woman said with the air of the condemned.

"She'll be back," Rei said. "Nobody and nothing is going to bust up five friends like us for very long. She'll be back - - count on it."

"You see that in a vision?" Minako needled.

"No. But what if I did?" Rei asked defensively, cocking an eyebrow.

"Then I'd have to say," Minako replied, a grateful smile sprouting on her red mouth, "thank goodness."

Makoto grinned. She wrapped her arms around what was left of her surrogate family and pulled them in close.  
- - - -  
"Anyway, that's what Michiru told me," Haruka said as Hotaru listened thoughtfully. Then she grinned. "And I slept on the plane, so I wasn't a zombie. She made that up."

"Sure, Haruka-Papa," Hotaru smirked. The girl sobered. "But I still don't understand why the Queen would ban androids. Androids are just machines. They're not evil. If they do evil things, it's the fault of whoever programmed them. They can only do what they're told - - unless one manages to evolve an artificial intelligence."

"Ami told her the same thing," Haruka said. "And repeatedly told her. It's kind of a sore spot between them. But Serenity looks at androids sort of the way she looks at guns. There's too much of a risk to human life connected with them and she won't allow it. The bad outweighs the good in her mind. So there are no androids in Crystal Tokyo, just like there are no guns. And the 'Android Riots' in America in 2159 only made her think she was right even more."

"Android Riots?" Hotaru asked.

"They don't teach it here because of the ban," Haruka shrugged. "If you can get on the right net, though, you can find the story."

"Did they ever find Viluy?"

"Yeah, she came back a couple of times," Haruka scowled. "Arrogant little bitch."

"What happened?"

"Another time," smirked Haruka. "It's getting to be your bedtime."

"Papa!" pleaded Hotaru. "Tell me!"

"You'll just have to look that one up yourself - - tomorrow! Right now you need to go to sleep. You want to get your rest so you can be beautiful for 'That Boy'."

"His name is Yutaka, Papa, not 'That Boy'," Hotaru huffed.

"Scoot!" Haruka grinned. Hotaru got up to go to her room. "Give me a kiss first." She leaned down and pecked Haruka on the cheek.

"Thanks for being honest with me, Papa," Hotaru smiled.

"Anytime, Firefly," Haruka smiled back.

THE END


End file.
